dothack::Chosen
by megafan505
Summary: Akira Hayabusa hates video games especially The World. But when you live in a world where everyone wants you to play it what can you do? Akira might not know it but he has just started an adventure unlike any he ever dreamed of. Ch. 5 is up!
1. The Legend Unfolds

megafan505: Hello one and all! It is I, megafan505! Yes I realize that I have other fics that I should be working on but I just had to write this one down. I am currently working on another chapter for Kingdom Hearts Shadow Sides but I've been longing to work on this one for a while now. I always have .hack/fics in the back of my mind.

Yamimega: I didn't know you had a mind to begin with.

megafan505: I'll just ignore that for now, I'll kill you later, unlike in my other fics I shall do the disclaimer myself for this one.

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Disclaimer: I do not own .hack/ in any way, form, or matter. I own the storyline for this one fic and several of the characters. Many of the characters will belong to the same people who own .hack/ while others may derive from other fics, including the fic "Log On!" but won't appear just yet. Now on with the fic!

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.hack/Chosen

By megafan505

Chapter 1: The Legend Unfolds

"Really? I'm a Wavemaster! I wanted to be a Twin Blade but I didn't like their designs."

"I just got to level 32 last night!"

"So we're all gonna meet in the Theta server to check out the rumor right?"

"I can't believe I spent all of my GP on a hideout!"

"Oh cool! You got an Aqua Grunty? Every time I try I just get a Noble Grunty! "

Akira Hayabusa was an eighth grade boy with black hair and silver eyes. They weren't gray, they were actually silver, like moonlight or metal, a strange color for eyes to be but he didn't want to be normal. Akira sat in his seat and yawned. He had been sitting there all by himself drawing, he loved to draw. There were few things in life he enjoyed more. There weren't many people around him who shared the passion however. Everyone around him were too preoccupied with video games, the most infamous of which was "The World." "The World," an MMORPG which changed the very meaning of gaming as it was. Akira couldn't care less about it however, above all things he hated video games. To him they seemed like a waste of time and money, once you finish them there's nothing you can do but sell them to some secondhand store for a fraction of the cost you spent on it. Wavemasters, GP, Grunty. All these words were like someone from France coming and trying to explain politics to him, he just didn't get what drew people to it. It all just sounded like meaningless garble to him. It seemed nobody in his class, grade, or even entire school understood him. Even some of the teachers were sucked into the game. Noone of course except Natsume Ichiya, his girlfriend.

The bell rang and everyone hurried to their seats, finally silencing all of the nonsense about "The World." "All right, settle down everyone," the teacher, Mr. Kurasume said, "We have a new student joining us, he comes from Tokyo. Everyone give a warm welcome to Taro Kishinuma." A boy with half-moon glasses and dark brown hair entered the room and bowed. "Now please Kishinuma-san, take a seat, um... let's see, how about behind Hayabusa-san."

The boy made his way to his seat, "Tokyo huh?" Akira asked turning around, "Very nice." Akira had always wanted to go to Tokyo but his parents said that they were always too busy. They promised him that they would take him as a present for his fifteenth birthday, but they would probably forget about that promise. Akira hardly mentioned it to them and they were very bad at remembering promises. "I'm Akira Hayabusa."

"Hey, nice to meet you," Taro said and smiled for a moment, "Yeah my parents said that they wanted to move some place quiet, that's why we came here." The school that they went to, Nakama Academy, was located in Murakami, a small little town. In fact that's what the name of the town meant, little village.

"Now everyone, please turn to page 137 in your books," Mr. Kurasume said, "Yesterday we were talking about the Pythagorean theorem." Akira turned to his desk and put away his drawing tablet. In its place he put down his Algebra book and opened it. He sighed, it seemed like it would be just another uneventful day in his life.

"So do you play 'The World?'" a voice came from behind him said. He turned around to see Taro slightly leaning over his desk.

"What did you just say?" Akira asked, hoping that he had heard the boy wrong. He thought that once the bell rang all of the garbage about "The World" would finally disperse. Boy was he ever wrong.

"Do you play 'The World?" Taro repeated. It seemed this boy would be just like every other student, obsessed with the stupid video game. "Because you really seem like someone who would like to play video games and since 'The World' is the ultimate video game I thought you would like it."

Akira clenched a fist in frustration, "Look, can we talk about this later?" he asked trying to get off of the subject.

"Hayabusa-san!" Mr. Kurasume shouted, "Is there something you wish to share with the class?"

Akira stood up and bowed, "No Kurasume Sensei, I apologize." He sat back down and glared at Taro. 'Just another annoying character in the story of my life,' he thought to himself. Apparently Taro didn't see Akira glaring at him nor did he realize that Akira got in trouble because of him. All Taro did was smile at him. "This is going to be a long day," Akira muttered under his breath.

The bell rang, it was now lunch time. "Now remember class," the teacher said, "Our test over the entire chapter will be tomorrow, if you start studying tonight it will show in your test."

Akira walked out of the room only to be followed by the same voice that was irritating him through the entire class. "Hey Akira," Taro said running after him, "Why were you ignoring me?" Akira just kept on walking, "Hey, where are you going?" Finally Akira could ignore him no more.

Akira turned around, "Look, I'm sorry I was ignoring you but you were the reason I got in trouble!" he shouted. He turned to his locker, opened it, and pulled out his box lunch. "And if you must know where I'm going, I'm going to have lunch with Natsume, my girlfriend."

Taro's eyes grew wide, "So, you have a girlfriend?" he asked slightly jabbing Akira in the side, "Okay then I'll talk to you after your little date! Don't you two do anything naughty!" He ran off snickering.

Akira slammed his locker shut and sighed, "Good riddance." He walked through the hall and outside where a girl with long brown hair and a blue hair ribbon was sitting on a bench. This girl was Natsume. She waved to him and he headed over, "Sorry, I took so long, the new kid was annoying me."

Natsume giggled, "That's all right, come on let's eat." He sat down and opened up his lunch. "Um, Akira-chan," Natsume asked, "You know the game 'The World?'" Akira looked up at her.

"Oh no, please don't tell me that you're getting sucked into the game too," Akira said twiddling his chopsticks in his fingers, "You know I don't like video games."

"Well, I've been playing it for a while and I really think you would like it," she continued, "It's really not that.."

"Look, Natsume, once everyone gets tired of that game what will be left?" Akira interrupted, "Nothing but a software disk, a virtual helmet, and a bunch of attachments that do nothing but enhance the game!" Akira sighed, "Look, I'm sorry I yelled at you, let's just eat our lunch without anymore stupid stuff about 'The World.'" A slightly sad look came across Natsume's face but she nodded.

The two of them ate lunch together for a little while but then Natsume's friend, Sakura Nakamoto came by. "Hate to break up your little date," she said, "But we have that thing to take care of Natsume." Nastsume nodded and stood up.

"Sorry Akira-chan, see you later!" Natsume said as she and Sakura ran off. Akira put away his lunch and walked over to a cherry blossom tree. He sat down and took out his drawing tablet. This place was like his little inspiration spot, every time he came here ideas just flowed right into his head for drawing. Besides drawing, he also liked to write poetry, but still drawing was his passion. He had been working on a picture of a girl, he wasn't sure who it was but her image just came to him. She had long, straight, golden hair and a sad expression on her face. She wore a little dress that was made up of many different colored cloths.

"It's just missing something," he said to himself, tapping his pencil on the pad. There was something that he needed to add but what? It was tugging at his mind and he couldn't focus. He spent the rest of his lunch time just sitting there, thinking and staring at the picture. She looked so lonely, as if all she wanted was for someone to come and help her. "But what is it?"

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The rest of the day seemed to take an eternity to pass by. Every class Taro had sat right behind him, jabbering on and on about "The World," and every class Akira would get in trouble for trying to tell him to shut up. For some reason Taro just couldn't get the message, that Akira did not want to talk about "The World." Then, after what felt like a lifetime, the bell rang. Taro, still close behind Akira, followed him to his locker, "So, how did your little date go?" Taro asked. 

Akira opened his locker and sighed, 'Finally, he talks about something besides "The World",' he thought to himself. "It was fine," Akira said turning to see Taro with a strange grin on his face, "And no, we didn't do anything like that you pervert." Akira put away all of his books except for the ones he needed to work in and his tablet. As he turned to take something out of his locker he found it. Underneath his science book was a box, wrapped in brown paper with a little sheet of paper attached to it, "What's this?" he asked himself looking at the paper, it was a note that read:

Dear Akira,

I know you hate video games but I promise that you'll like this one.

Please give it a try, just for me?

Love, Natsume

Akira sighed and put it in his bag, "That girl will be the death of me," he said hoping no one else saw the package. Of course they wouldn't know what it was, after all it had been wrapped. Not even Akira was entirely sure what it was, but he could give an extremely good guess, a guess that would be right. He closed his locker and turned, "You're still here?" he asked Taro. Akira picked up his bag and started to walk.

"Wait where are you going?" Taro shouted after him and soon he was following Akira home, "So do you want to meet up in 'The World' later? How about we trade some items or go to a dungeon in a party? Yeah that would be great! I know this place, well I heard about it on the boards, but there's supposed to be a really rare item there and..." It just went on and on. Akira thought that if not after the bell, then at least after the end of school he would be safe from "The World" but again he was wrong.

Finally he got home, well actually his parent's mini mart. They owned a small store and their house was right above it. He went inside and walked through and up the stairs to the house, all the while ignoring Taro. He lay down on his bed and sighed. All of a sudden his cell phone began to ring, "Hello?" he asked picking it up.

"Hey Akira are we still on for later today, I'll meet you in Mac Anu and then we can..." it was Taro. This was just getting too weird.

"How the hell did you get my number!" he shouted into the phone, "Look, we were never on to begin with! I hate video games and above all of them I hate 'The World!' Leave me alone! You are annoying!" If it hadn't have been a cell phone he would have slammed it down on the receiver but he had to settle for pressing the disconnect button for a really long time. He threw the phone on the ground and groaned, "Why doesn't he get it?" Akira's bag fell on the floor and the brown package fell out onto the ground. Akira picked it up and unwrapped it, it was just as he thought. In his hands he held a large box with "The World" written at the top.

He put it down next to his computer, "Well, Natsume asked me so I guess I could try it," he said to himself sitting down. He opened the box and found the software, a headset, the controller, and the user manual. He opened the disk drive and popped the software in.

"Thank you for purchasing, 'The World'" the computer said. It was preprogrammed on the disk obviously. Akira pulled out the manual and skimmed through it quickly.

"All right then," he said hesitantly picking up the headset, "Here I go." He closed his eyes as he put it on, for the time being he only saw the screen which read, "Register with The World." Akira moved his hands to the keyboard and tapped it for a second, thinking. Then after a few minutes he had it, Yamano. Last year he had written a story in poem form about a boy who was forced to face a wicked beast and save a kingdom all for the one he loved. The boy's name was Yamano and he had a spear as his weapon, so when it came to the part where Akira chose his class, he obviously chose Long Arm, a spear wielder.

Now it was time to customize what he looked like. This part was easy. To accompany the poem Akira had drawn a picture of his character. He had black, straight hair, except for a few bangs which were golden in color. He wore a yellow vest with a red shirt that had long sleeves. He wore two bronze shoulder plates and had grey, baggy pants. His shoes were normal leather shoes and on his waist he had a small satchel. "Perfect," Akira said, and he hit the create character button.

Apparently after he registered it automatically logged him in because the next thing he knew he was in the game. He looked around him and saw stone streets and little canals through the town he was in. There were players all over the place, running to and fro from shop to player to alley. Nothing was still, all was active. "I wonder where Natsume could be," Yamano asked himself. He turned around to see the Chaos Gate, a swirling ring that was filled with blue, "Cool." He turned his head a little more and saw a Heavy Blade girl standing there with her arms crossed and tapping her foot. She wore a small chest plate that covered up her upper torso and an armored skirt. She also had an orange shirt on under the armor and had red hair.

"Oh, hello can I help you?" she asked walking over to him. He paused for a moment and she smiled, "No need to be shy, you didn't disrupt me or anything, I'm just waiting for my friend."

Yamano looked straight at her, "Do you mean friend, or boyfriend?" He asked her. She began to blush a deep crimson.

"Well, actually I mean boyfriend," she laughed a bit and then looked at him, "You look kind of new. Do you need help or something?"

Yamano smiled a bit, "Your name wouldn't happen to be, Natsume would it?" he asked with a slight blush. He knew that the odds were really high that it would be her. After all there were over two million people who played "The World"

"Huh? Yeah that's my name, why?" the girl asked and the paused, then she realized it, "Akira!" She hugged Yamano and he blushed, "Oh thank you Akira! I knew you'd try it for me!" She let go of him and stood upright, "But never call me Natsume here. Here I am Nabuko, the Heavy Blade!"

Yamano paused for a moment not realizing what he was supposed to do. "Oh right, um I'm Yamano," he said introducing his character, "So I guess we should go to an area or something right?"

"You read the manual?" she asked in disbelief. He was always the type of person to just start using things and getting them as he went along, "I'm impressed! Yep, that's right! You should already have some items in your pack. Here's my member address," she said. On Yamano's screen a message appeared. "You now have Nabuko's member address: 68527893." He gave her his as well, 69251637. She stood there for a moment as if she were expecting something, "What are you waiting for? Send me an invite for your party."

"Oh right," Yamano said as he started to send the invite. "So where are we going to?"

"Hey you!" a voice from behind him shouted. They turned to see a red haired twin blade with an X shaped scar on his cheek. He wore a black scarf and an orange shirt. He also had a pair of green pants on. His blades were located in the gloves he was wearing and he had silver hair(This is a modified version of Sora's character), "Did you say you were going to an area? Then you'll need someone like me! I can tell you guys are noobs and"

Nabuko cut him off, "Excuse me but I don't think that we will need your help! Besides, I'm at level four! I am not a noob!"

The Twin Blade smirked, "Well, you might not be but he is," he said pointing over to Yamano. Yamano looked down at the ground and shuffled his feet, the Twin Blade was telling the truth, Yamano was a new player. "So come on, let's trade member addresses!"

"There is no way I am trading member addresses with a jerk like you!" shouted Nabuko. The Twin Blade made his way over to Yamano.

"Well, what about you?" he asked, forcing his blades to come out. He held the blades up to Yamano's neck, "You could really use a friend like me." He swiftly put his blades back in, "I'm just joking, I wouldn't kill you. My name's Roat. Sorry for the comments about you guys being noobs, so what do you say, friends?"

Yamano paused for a moment and thought to himself. What was up with this guy. He didn't know wether he could trust him or not but one thing was true. Yamano was a new character and he could use some friends. "Well," Yamano said, "Alright I guess." He gave him his member address and sent him a party invite.

"I'm still not giving you my member address," Nabuko said glaring at Roat, "But let's go. I found

an area where you can practice at. It's called Δ Hidden Passed Over Prairie. It's a wood element area and it's level one."

"I knew you were a newbie," Roat muttered under his breath, "Ok let's go!"

They walked over to the Chaos Gate and all shouted, "Hidden Passed Over Prairie!" Soon gold rings appeared around all of them and they were warped to the area. It was a grassland covered with trees and rocks. Every once and a while there was a little fort, but there was nothing there.

Nabuko threw a Fairy Orb to the ground and little figures concealed in light came from it. They flew back after a few moments, "There, now we can see all the magic portals around here!" There were tons of them all around, "Oops, I didn't realize that there were that many portals around here..." Nabuko said scratching the back of her head.

"No problem!" shouted Roat, "With me here we'll clear them in no time!" Nabuko glared at him but he started to run off, "Come on! Let's get to a portal!" Nabuko groaned and they followed after him to a portal.

"You know what this is right?" asked Nabuko pointing towards the portal.

Yamano nodded, "That's a magic portal, if you enter it then a monster might come out. Other times treasure chests appear."

"Wow, you really did read the manual," she said walking into the portal. Two Mad Grasses came from it and they easily took them down. They then ran off to clear the rest of the portals. On the next one the monster left behind a blue treasure chest.

"What's that?" Yamano asked pointing to it.

"That's a Risky Treasure," said Roat, "I thought you read the manual." Roat threw a Fortune Wire on it and it changed color.

Yamano scratched the back of his head, "Well, more like skimmed really."

About fifteen portals later a message appeared over Yamano's head which read Level Up! "Yes, I got to level two!" he shouted. He looked over at Roat. Above his head it read Level Up! As well. "So who did you say was a newbie?" Akira asked.

Roat grinned. "Well, I'm level three now! You're still more of a noob than I am!" They spent about two hours clearing out the rest of the portals.

"I'm bushed!" shouted Nabuko laying down on the grass, "I think that was the last of the portals."

Yamano and Roat sat next to her. In the real world Akira took of the headset and looked at the time, it was 7:30 "Oh shit! I haven't done my homework!" He put the headset back on.

"I gotta go guys, sorry. Let's meet in Mac Anu tomorrow at say, 4:00" Yamano said as he disbanded the party and the same gold rings that brought him there surrounded him but this time they took him out.

"Don't leave me here with this guy!" Nabuko shouted. She turned around to see Roat getting slowly closer to her.

"I guess that means it's just you and me," he said with a wicked grin on his face.

"I don't think so," Nabuko put her hand in his face an gated out.

"Aw... now I have to go get someone else to go to a dungeon with!" he shouted as he gated out as well.

"They seem like they know how to have fun don't you think so?

"Yes perhaps we should show them how we like to have fun sometime."

* * *

Akira took off his headset and sighed, "I guess it wasn't that bad," he said to himself. He was lying though. He hadn't had that much fun in, well, ever. He turned off the computer and set the headset down. As he walked over to his bag he saw that his sketchbook was on the ground. "How did you get over here?" he asked. It was turned to the page that had the picture of the girl on it but something was different, her small hands were held out and in them there were two rings, "That's odd, I don't remember drawing that part." He picked it up and set it next to the headset, the thing that he felt was missing seemed to be there now. He pulled out his homework and was about to start on it when, 

"Akira! Dinnertime!" a voice called. He set down his books and headed for his door.

"Coming Mom!" he shouted back. As he left the room he turned off the lights and shut the door.

"You have been chosen, like so many before you."

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megafan505: Well that's the first chapter! Hope you guys liked it! In case some of you say that the .hack/ series has two slashes in it I know but won't let me use it put it twice so oh well. Please review and sorry it was so long! Expect the next chapter soon, in fact maybe in a few days. I'm on winter break and I have nothing to do besides my science project and I bet you know which one I would rather do. See you guys later! 


	2. The Celestial Bands

megafan505: Hello one and all! I told you this next chapter would be up soon didn't I? Oh well, again sorry for the first chapter being so long. I personally thought that it was a bit slow paced. In this chapter I'll have a couple of people from Magical Girl Pretty Sammy-Chan's "Log On!" as cameos but they will be in more chapters as important characters. Anyway, I don't have much to say for my author's note so I might as well get on with the fic.

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Disclaimer: I don't own .hack/ or any of the places in this story. The characters Prisma, Iam, Orizo, and others who are cameos in this chapter belong to Magical Girl Pretty Sammy-Chan. I only own several characters in this fic which include Akira and Natsume.

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.hack/Chosen

By megafan505

Chapter 2: The Celestial Bands

The next day started just as Akira had thought it would. Everyone was talking about "The World," which was extremely predictable. Akira sighed and reached in his bag to take out his sketchbook. He felt through the bag and realized it wasn't there. "I left it by my computer," he muttered to himself, "I'm such an idiot."

"Were you in that event?"

"I can't find the Spiral Edge anywhere!"

"Hey Akira what's your level?"

Akira turned around and looked over to where the question came from. "Don't bother," another person said, "Akira hates video games remember? There's no way he would play 'The World'!"

Akira looked at the ground for a moment then looked up, "Well, actually, I kind of do," he looked around the room and saw nearly everyone staring at him except a few people talking in the corner. "What?" he asked and afterwards he really wished that he hadn't. All of a sudden he was pummeled with questions.

"What class are you?"

"What's your username?"

"What level are you?"

"Do you have a Grunty?"

"How many people do you have on your friend list? Can I be on it?"

Out of all the questions he was only really able to make out the last one. All of the other people were asking questions at the same time. "Well, I just started playing yesterday, I only have two people on my friend list." He leaned back in his chair, "The first one is Natsume, her account is Nabuko though."

"You mean your girlfriend?"

"Oh, you guys are fighting side by side? That's so romantic!"

"So who's the other person on your list?"

Akira blushed and began to twiddle his thumbs, "Well I don't know who they are in real life," he said turning back to the person asking the question, "He's a Twin Blade, his character's name is Roat."

"YAMANO!" a voice from the other side of the room came. A boy made his way through they crowd and it was just who Akira thought it would be, Taro.

* * *

Now the truth was out, Akira Hayabusa, hater of video games, played "The World." The worst part about it now was Taro wouldn't stop talking about it. He followed Akira wherever he went talking about "The World." The entire day was spent by Akira once again getting in trouble because of Taro. 'Why can't he get it?' Akira thought to himself, 'Is Taro really that dense?' Deep down Akira knew that Taro meant well but he was just way too obsessed with "The World." He needed something else to do but what?

When it came to lunch Akira and Taro went to sit down with Natsume, "I brought a friend," Akira said setting down his food, "This is Taro Kishinuma, the new kid." They both sat down and Natsume smiled.

"Nice to meet you Kishinuma-san," she said opening up her box lunch, "I'm Natsume Ichiya." "So Akira, are we still on for 4:00 today?"

"You better be on! After you guys left yesterday I had nothing to do any more!" Taro shouted. A confused look came over Natsume's face

"Oh right, um Natsume," Akira said scratching the back of his head, "Um, yeah, Taro plays 'The World' too. Er, yeah . . . he's Roat."

The next thing anybody knew Taro had a red hand-shaped mark on the side of his face, "You jerk!" Natsume shouted trying to whack Taro again. Taro stood up and started to run off, "Get back here! I'm not through with you!" She got up and began to chase after him. "You were so rude to me and Akira-chan yesterday!"

"I'm sorry, please don't hurt me!" he shouted while running from her. Akira sighed and walked over to where Natsume was holding Taro down.

"Natsume calm down," Akira said grabbing her by the back of her shirt. Normally in the real world Natsume was always so happy and calm. If ever she was angry at anyone, she would usually let it go unless of course someone messed with her friends. Natsume was extremely protective of any and all of her friends. If anyone did something to harm them either physically or emotionally she would go into a state of rage.

"If you mess with my friends, I will mess with your physical well being!" she shouted to Taro. Finally she calmed down and the three of them sat down back at the table. Taro, however, was as far away from Natsume as he could possibly be. He had found a reason to respect her, mostly out of fear.

"Once again I am very sorry," Taro apologized again, "Had I known that those characters were you two I wouldn't have been so, what's the word I'm looking for?"

"So rude, so evil?" Natsume asked trying to fill in Taro's sentence for him, "So much of a jerk?" Akira put a hand on her shoulder and she sighed. "I'm sorry I slapped you but you deserved it," she said and Taro nodded in response, "Look, I can tell you love the game a lot but you need to work on your netiquette. You have to realize that you can't be rude to people like that. It's just like in real life." An image came into Akira's head. If Taro were more like real life in the game then he would follow random people around talking about areas and weapons and Grunties. But since it would be actually in "The World" then it wouldn't be too big a problem.

"I'm sorry," Taro said with his face toward the ground, "I don't mean to be that way it's just," He paused for a moment and looked up at Natsume. "Well back in Tokyo I didn't really have any friends, a few couple before I came here I started to play 'The World'." Akira and Natsume moved in closer with interest. "At first," Taro continued, "There was nobody wanted to go to an area or dungeon with me, but then I met this one guy, his name was Arios. He went with me to a newbie area, kind of like the one we went to yesterday. After we cleared all the portals, we headed down to the dungeon. Once we got to the bottom he went into the last room without me. When I finally went into the room he was gone . . . "

"Maybe he just used a Sprite Ocarina," Natsume said, "And went back up to the field area."

Taro shook his head, "No, I checked, we were still in a party," he said then put his hands to his head, "I was so stupid! I was too busy gathering up the items in that room that I didn't even notice his life gauge going down! But the weird part was, he was just gone, not a ghost or anything, just gone." He stopped for a few seconds. Akira could have sworn he saw a tear coming from Taro's eyes, "Before I left the dungeon started to change," Taro continued, "It was like the parts of the computer code were missing. There were orange blotches all over the place and little 1s and 0s all over. I kept e-mailing Arios to see if he was ok but he never responded to any of them. After that day I stopped playing 'The World' until I moved here."

Everyone grew quite for a while then Natsume asked, "What was the name of the area?" Akira and Taro looked at her strangely, "We're going to check that area out tonight."

"Are you crazy!" Taro shouted. He crossed his arms and sighed, "Well if you want to get yourselves killed fine by me but keep me out of it. It was Δ Bursting Passed Over Aqua Field." Taro's voice grew softer, "Please don't go. I don't want something to happen to you guys like Arios."

Akira looked straight at Taro, "Don't worry," he said, "Nothing bad is going to happen. After all, how bad of a monster could possibly be in a level one area?"

"Well don't count me in," Taro said with a sad but slightly angry tone of voice, "If something happens to you two then I am not responsible for it! Go and get yourselves killed!" He grew silent for a moment, "Please, as your guys' friend I'm asking you don't go."

The bell rang and Akira and Natsume stood up. Taro still sat on the table, his head facing down. Natsume made her way into the school while Akira put his hand on Taro's shoulder. "We'll be fine," he said, "I promise." He turned around and started to walk in, "You better get to your next class," he added.

* * *

The rest of the school day was oddly peaceful. Akira didn't get in trouble at all because Taro didn't talk to him at all. He must have been in deep thought. For some reason the only thing in Akira's mind was the picture of that girl he drew. He couldn't help but think about her. Strangely, when he tried to think about, "The World" his thoughts of her grew stronger. After school he went straight home. He didn't stop for anything. They had to figure out what had happened. He couldn't help but feel a little scared.

When he got him he immediately ran up to his room and booted up his computer. He had two new e-mails. The first was from Natsume:

Title: Meet

Hey Yamano!

Let's meet in Mac Anu and then we'll go check out the area. See you then!

Nabuko

The second one was from Taro and it read:

Title: Please don't

Hey, Akira

You don't have to go there. It could be dangerous. You and Natsume could get in serious trouble. Please don't go.

Taro

Akira decided to respond to the last one:

Title: Re: Please don't

Taro

I told you don't worry. We'll be fine.

Akira

Akira sent the e-mail and then hesitantly picked up the headset. He put it on and logged onto "The World." He ended up in Mac Anu since that was the server that he was in when he logged out the day before. "Ready to go?" a voice from behind asked. He turned around and it was Nabuko. He knew it would be her but he was hoping that Roat would be there too.

Yamano nodded and sent Nabuko a party invite, "I guess Roat won't be joining us huh?" Akira sighed and walked over to the Chaos Gate. He looked back one last time, hoping that Roat would be there but he wasn't.

Nabuko followed him up to the Chaos Gate, "Bursting Passed Over Aqua Field!" they shouted then they jumped into it.

"Let the fun begin."

* * *

They ended up in and area that was a lot like the one they went to the day before only there were two distinct differences. The first difference was that there were windmills in this area instead of forts. The other difference was far more noticeable however. All over there were orange blotches and there were little data streams floating in the air. If you looked up you would see huge gaping holes in the sky and every few moments the area around them seemed to abruptly vibrate, just as if a jolt of static electricity suddenly went through the part of "The World" which was controlling this certain area. "What happened to this place?" Nabuko asked with a look of shock on her face. Even Yamano stood frozen even though he didn't know whether an area in "The World" was supposed to look like this or not. Finally Nabuko moved, "All right, let's get going. Roat said that Arios disappeared in the dungeon so that's where we'll check first."

They ran over to the dungeon which was only a few feet away from them. Oddly there were no magic portals around in the field. It may have been a glitch but that was all right. The last thing they needed was something to keep them away from the dungeon. As soon as they got into the dungeon there were two treasure chests. One was normal and the other one was a Risky Treasure. They ignored it and went on to the next room which was a corridor. They slowly walked up to the cross path and saw a girl to the left of them. She was all dressed in white with pale skin and hair the same color. "Hello," Nabuko said, "Are you lost?" All of a sudden from behind her a giant monster appeared. It had a broken ring attached to the top of its head and held a red staff. It was in the shape of a tall human but it had no face or feet. It looked as though it were made of stone and on its chest it had a symbol that looked like a yellow and red eye. It began to chase after the girl down the corridor where Yamano and Nabuko were standing. The two of them braced themselves but the girl and the monster just passed through them, like ghosts. "What the," Nabuko said but she was interrupted by a voice in the direction they came from.

"Was that thing chasing her?" a Twin Blade dressed in grey asked. He had two triangular marks on his cheeks and had blue-green hair.

"Yeah," a Blademaster next to him responded. His voice was much deeper and his hair was a sort of dirty blonde color. Most of his body was painted the same color as the Twin Blade's hair, "But something like that," he continued, "On this level." After he finished that statement, the both of them just faded away.

"What was that Nabuko?" Akira asked standing there in shock, "Did they just disappear?"

Nabuko shook her head, "I've heard rumors about this before but I never thought they could be real." She stood there with the same look that she had when they first arrived in the area. "According to rumors they saw ghost figures, but these guys seem more like someone's memory that's been broken up and stuck here." A flat, round object slowly floated to the ground. Nabuko picked it up. In her inventory it read M:DC. "I've never heard of an item like this." When she tried to use it, a garbled message appeared before her. She put it in her pack, "We might need this later."

Akira turned to the side of the corridor where the girl had been chased by the strange monster had chased the girl, "Come on let's go and see if she's ok," he said as he ran to the other room. They entered the room. It had a couple of treasure chests and a few barrels but the girl and the monster were nowhere to be found. "She's gone, she looked so much like her," Akira muttered under his breath.

They left the room and continued through the dungeon. It was awfully small because before they knew it they were on the second and final level. They entered a room which appeared as a small square on the map, so it must have been the Gott Statue altar. But after they entered it violet smoke began to radiate from it. Everything went black and then suddenly they were in on a distorted platform. "What is this place?" Nabuko asked.

"Do you like it?" a voice came from nowhere. Suddenly the air around them seemed to vibrate and a rift of some sort opened up. It became bigger and looked like some type of shadowy hole. A Blademaster girl walked out of it. She had red hair and it was tied up in a bun. She had on a long grey kimono and her sword was strapped to her back. "I didn't make it though. I just found it." She floated slowly to the ground, "The name's Haruko and I have a proposition." Nabuko and Yamano glared at her, they didn't trust her. "You know what, I don't like this place as much anymore." She moved her hands around and giant spikes appeared from the ground. She moved her hand behind her back and created a chair out of stone, "That's much better," she said going to sit down in her new addition to the area.

"You're a hacker!" shouted Nabuko, "You're a cheat player!"

Haruko smirked, "Actually I like to think that I have surpassed being a player, I hack for fun!" She pulled out her sword and put it to Nabuko's neck, "Now, as for my proposition, I want you two to join me."

Akira put his spear up to Haruko's back, "If you dare to harm her, even to take on Hit Point off of her gauge I swear that it will be the last thing you ever do."

"Aw, protecting your true love!" Haruko mocked, "How sweet!" She jumped back over to her chair and sat down. "But really, it's so much fun being a hacker, watch this!" She held up her hand and a giant green and black circle appeared on the ground. "Now arise Data Bug!" From the circle a giant moth-like creature emerged.

"That's a Deadly Moth!" Nabuko shouted. It was a Deadly Moth but there was something different about it. It was covered in green particles and small bits of data were flowing from it. Nabuko looked at the life gauge it was garbled just like the message that she saw when she tried to use the M:DC. "What is that thing?" Yamano charged at it and started to strike it with his spear. Nabuko followed him.

"It doesn't matter, you can't do anything to stop it," Haruko said as they kept striking the monster. The Deadly Moth flew a little higher and then struck them both. They fell on the ground, their life gauges depleted.

Yamano floated through thick darkness. He could see nothing except for Nabuko. He wanted to say something but every time he opened his mouth the only thing that came out was, "I am dead." Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, a bright light appeared, distant first but grew bigger and bigger. Yamano couldn't think at or talk at all but if he had he would have realized that the light became the girl. The one that he drew in his sketchbook. She reached out her hand and suddenly Yamano could move again, "You," he said, "You're that girl." The girl moved over to Nabuko and touched her as well.

Nabuko got up and the girl moved back slightly, "You have been chosen," she said reaching out her hands, "Like so many before you." They didn't know why but Yamano and Nabuko held out their hands as well. The girl touched Nabuko's right ring finger and a ring made of gold appeared on it. On one side of the ring there was a carving of the sun and on the other side of an eye. "To you," the girl continued, "I give the Ring of the Golden Sun and the Gift of the Eye." She then touched Yamano's finger as well, but this time a silver ring appeared. On one side it had the image of a crescent moon and on the other the image of a circle spreading outward, "And to you I give the Ring of the Silver Moon and the Gift of the Mind." She put down her arms and backed off more, "Together you have the power but alone you shall fall," she said. Behind her the images of people appeared. One image was the Twin Blade they saw in the dungeon and a boy who looked just like him but smaller. There were others they hadn't seen before such as a Long Arm girl with violet hair and a Twin Blade boy with white hair. On their hands they had what seemed like hand guards but the boy had it on his left hand and it was blue while the girl had a red one on her right finger. There was a Wavemaster who had grey hair and some type of cat player wearing a pointed hat behind him. Alongside the girl there was the girl in white from the dungeon and two others. One of the girls looked just like the one in white but she had black hair and wore black clothes as well. The final girl looked younger then the others. She was dressed in red and had short white hair.

"But who are you?" Yamano asked holding out his hand, "And why did you give us these rings?"

The girl just stood there for a moment, "Celestia," she said and then finally faded off. The darkness faded away along with her. Slowly the area where they were before returned, nothing had changed about it. It was like when the Deadly Moth killed them they were sent to a place outside of time.

"It can't be," Haruko said looking there in shock, "You should both be dead! How can you still alive!" She stood up, "Attack them my Data Bug!"

Yamano and Nabuko started to attack the Data Bug again. After a while something happened. A green orb appeared around it and then it shattered. "Nabuko do you know what to do?" Yamano asked and Nabuko nodded.

"I don't really know but I can see it," she said to him, "It's like a vision showing me what to do. How about you?"

"Well, I can't see it but I just know," he said smiling, "So let's do it then!"

They both held out their hands and the rings began to glow. "Sun and Moon Data Drain!" they both shouted at the same time. A beam appeared from the rings and hit the Data Bug. The green flakes fell to the ground and the data particles flew off.

"My beautiful Data Bug!" shouted Haruko, "You two will pay for this!" She turned around and another shadow rift opened. She jumped in and the rift closed. Yamano and Nabuko attacked the monster. It was now a normal Deadly Moth. It fell to the ground and faded away.

A Level Up message appeared above Yamano's head. "Hey I leveled up!" he held out the peace sign. He looked over at Nabuko. She was looking at the ring.

"What is this thing?" she asked Yamano.

"I don't know," he said looking at his own, "But something tells me that this was meant to happen. I also feel that there are others who are chosen, but we can't look for them, they just have to come to us."

Nabuko closed her eyes, a vision was coming to her, "I see a battle, about eleven people on our side and eleven on their's. But I can't see who they are, they're blurred." Nabuko opened her eyes and put her arm by her side. The area they were in began to fade away and they were in Mac Anu again standing right in front of the Chaos Gate.

"Well, I guess there's nothing we can do now," Yamano said as he disbanded the party, "Well I'll see you tomorrow." He made the peace sign and logged out.

* * *

Akira took off the headset and sighed, "What was all of that about." He put his hands behind his head and leaned back in his chair but then he felt something on his hand. "What?" He looked at his hand and he was still wearing the ring. His eyes grew wide, "How is this here?" he asked himself as he tried to pull it off but it wouldn't budge. He looked at his computer. The picture of Celestia was the same except for one thing. The rings were gone. In their place there were now two bracelets. His cell phone rang, "Hello?"

"Akira!" it was Natsume, "The ring it's"

"I know," he said putting down the drawing, "It's weird I have it on too."

"But what does this mean?" she asked in a frantic tone of voice, "How do we know what this Celestia person's intentions are?"

"I don't know. I guess the Gift of the Mind only works in the game," he joked, "I guess we just have to trust her. Don't worry. Everything will be all right. I'll see you tomorrow." He hung up the phone. It was now 6:00. Still, early but for some reason Akira was tired. He had already done his homework in school so he just lay down on his bed and slowly drifted off to sleep.

At first for some reason he dreamed of his family, about his parents and his little brother and sister. He was at home with them but then the room faded away. There was nothing just darkness and the sound of Celestia's voice, "You have been chosen," her solemn voice said, "Like so many before you." The rest of the night he dreamed of nothing.

* * *

megafan505: Well that's the end of the second chapter. Wow I'm working fast . . . I was thinking I wouldn't be done with this until the end of the week . . . Oh well, please review! 


	3. The Third Gift

megafan505: Hello everyone! Like I said I have absolutely nothing else to do during my winter break so I am already doing this next chapter! I was able to get up the second chapter of a fic before I got any reviews . . . I am really working fast. I still have no reviews . . . Well, I once again do not have anything to add for this author's not so here's the disclaimer.

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own .hack/ or any of its characters. I only own Akira, Taro, and Natsume, along with minor characters which I created. The memory fragment scene derives from Salorstar165's fic entitled HackLegend of the Twilight Angel.

* * *

.hack/Chosen

By megafan505

Chapter 3: The Third Gift

"So did you have any dreams last night?" Akira asked Natsume. The two of them had decided to walk to school that morning to talk about what happened yesterday. "You know," he continued, "Any visions about the rings or Celestia?" Akira was hoping that the powers that the rings gave them would be available to them when they were asleep. For once he was actually right.

Natsume nodded, "Well it wasn't really about Celestia or the rings," she said as the two of them turned the corner, "But I saw us in a battle with another Data Bug thing. We had another person with us though. I still couldn't see who it was though. But there was another hacker there, it wasn't Haruko, I could tell that much but I still couldn't see who it was." She looked at her ring and held it above her head into the sunlight. It shone with a brilliant light.

Akira did the same thing and it did shine a bit but not as much. "I guess your powers derive from the sun," he said putting his hand in his pocket. That was kind of obvious, after all Celestia did say it was the Ring of the Golden Sun. They turned another corner and where nearing the school, "Well like I said. My feeling told me we need to let the others just come to us, and I'm the one who was given the Gift of the Mind."

As they got into the school's yard, they saw one figure standing there. It was Taro. "You're ok!" he shouted as he ran up to the two of them and embraced them in his arms, "I'm so glad nothing happened to you guys. So what happened?" He looked down at the hands of the two, "Whoa! Matching rings, you guys are really getting serious about your relationship huh?" He began to jab Akira in the side a bit and Natsume blushed.

"I told you we'd be fine," Akira said once Taro stopped nudging him, "And no, we are not at that point in our relationship yet, we got these rings from, er well. Yesterday we went to the store and Natsume saw these rings. She made me try them on with her and then they got stuck, so then we had to buy them and they still won't come off." Taro reached for Akira's ring and started to tug on it.

"Wow, you're right those things are on tight," he said wiping his brow, "So what happened at the area? Where there any like super big monsters that tried to attack you guys or something? Was the place still funny looking?"

Natsume looked down at the ground, "Well there was this one," then she stopped. Akira was nudging her and shaking his head. He knew she was going to tell him what really happened.

"The area still looked kind of funny," Akira explained, "But there was nothing that was really freaky about it. It just seemed mostly like a normal area." He didn't want to get Taro involved in this. If Taro did get into this and he hadn't been chosen by Celestia then really bad things could happen. "Nothing was strange at all. We looked through the whole dungeon."

Taro looked over at Natsume and then back over to Akira, "Ok what's up with you guys?" he asked, "You're both acting really weird!"

"Nothing, we're just tired," Akira lied, "We were up all night trying to see if there were any leads. You know, to see if anyone saw Arios or something." He paused for a moment and looked over at Natsume. "Hey Taro, could you wait for me in class?" he asked, "Natsume and I need to talk."

A slightly perverted grin came across Taro's face. "Ok," he said and snickered, "Don't you two do anything bad now!" As he began to run off Akira picked up a stick and threw it at him, "OW!" Taro ignored it and walked into the building snickering and rubbing the back of his head.

"Akira, I don't want to lie to Taro," Natsume said with a saddened look on her face, "He's our friend, he deserves to know what happened."

"I know, I want to tell him the truth too," Akira said shaking his head, "But we can't it could be dangerous." He pulled out what looked like a PDA, "Look," he said scrolling down to an option that said news. He touched the pad with the stylus pen and the screen opened.

The headline read, "Girl Falls Into Coma While Playing 'The World'"

"Look," he said pointing to a line toward the bottom, "It says that this is the second person it happened to. The other one was a guy in his twenties from Kyoto. I don't know why, but I have a feeling that the Data Bugs are connected to this, and since there was one in the area where Arios disappeared then that might mean that Arios is in a coma." Both Natsume and Akira grew silent, "Let's talk about this on 'The World' later," Akira said as he walked into the building. Natsume followed close behind.

* * *

The first half of the day was quite uneventful. Right before lunch though something happened, "Hey that's a cool ring," a girl said to Akira, "Where did you get it." 

A boy followed her, "You know what, I think I saw Natsume wearing one just like that!"

Soon Akira was surrounded by a ton of people asking questions just like yesterday.

"You guys are getting really serious huh?"

"Did you buy that for her? Oh that's so romantic!"

"You sure are in love with her!"

Akira began to blush. He had to think of something to make sure he wasn't completely humiliated, "Well actually, we got them in an event in 'The World'," he said. Technically he wasn't lying. After all, Celestia did give it to them in "The World." "We won them in the game and they sent us some rings in real life." Luckily no one asked anything more after that. But Taro heard it all. Akira had just revealed the fact that he had been lying.

"We need to talk," Taro said as the two of them left the room, "But we need to talk with Natsume too." They walked out to the courtyard and saw Natsume sitting in her usual spot. Waiting for them on a bench. She waved to them and they sat down. "Ok, what gives?" Taro asked, "You told me you guys got these rings from the store but you just told the entire class that you guys got them in an event in 'The World'."

Natsume turned to Akira with a somewhat angry and yet disappointed look. Akira sighed, "Ok, the truth is that we got them in 'The World'." He didn't really lie to him but he felt that Taro wasn't ready to handle the whole truth.

"So why didn't you guys just tell me that then?" Taro asked with a grin on his face, "Man, now I really wish I had been on yesterday. Well I guess it was my fault, being all paranoid of that area. So, we gonna go on tonight?"

"Sure," Natsume said as she nodded, "We can level up some more. Akira is at level three already so we're almost all at the same level." Akira nodded in confirmation. They opened their lunches and began to eat. The rest of lunch was peaceful. Nothing else really happened.

* * *

After school Akira went straight home and sat down in the living room. His parents and siblings, Chihiro and Sota, were watching television. Normally the shop would be open but it was a Friday. They were only open until noon. A news bulletin came up on the television. "This is a breaking news update," the woman on the TV, "Yesterday in Osaka a girl fell into a comatose state while playing the popular online game known as, 'The World.' CC Corporation claims that it has nothing to do with the actual game and that the comas are being caused by an overdue amount of stress that happens to come out during the game. They are currently looking into the game to see if there are any bugs or glitches which may enhance this stress." 

Akira got up and started to walk up the stairs, "I'm going to my room."

"So you can call up Natsume?" Sota asked mockingly.

"Shut up twerp," Akira said as he disappeared up the walkway. Akira sat down and turned on his computer. He had one new e-mail from someone named Kalen. His picture identification on the e-mail was that of a man, still young though, with shaggy, black hair. He had a visor of some sort on and around his shoulders you could see the part of what looked like a black coat. The email read:

Subject: Welcome

Greetings,

It seems that you have been chosen among many to bear the Ring of the Silver Moon. This is a great power and you must use it wisely. Now that you walk this path our destinies, as well as many others', are now intertwined. You also left this behind.

Kalen

Attached to the e-mail was an item. When it appeared on Akira's screen it was in the shape of a hexagon and had the letter R engraved on it. In yellow text it read, "You have received: Virus Core R."

"What is this?" Akira asked himself. He decided to ignore it for now and log on to "The World."

* * *

When Yamano arrived in Mac Anu he didn't see any of the others. He decided to go and check the boards to see if there were any leads on the coma victims. He found one that was entitled "Help!" 

Subject: Help!

Author: Tarlia

My friend and I were in a dungeon and this really weird monster appeared. It was all covered in this green flaky stuff and its Hit Points were strange. We were both killed but my friend fell into a coma! Someone help! The dungeon we were at was **Δ Hidden Oblivious Widow**.

There was one other new message on the board that was entitled "Missing"

Subject: Missing

Author: Elk

I'm looking for my friend named Mia. I can't find her anywhere on "The World," but every time I check my friend list status it says she's on. If anyone sees her could you please tell me?

The second message didn't really concern Yamano but the monster from the first one must have been a data bug. There's nothing else it could possibly be. "So the comas are related to the Data Bugs after all," Akira muttered under his voice, "Which means that Arios must have been that man from Kyoto."

"Hey Yamano!" he heard a voice from behind him shouting. He turned around to see Roat and Nabuko running toward him. "Sorry we're late," Nabuko said, "I got this really weird e-mail from a guy named Kalen."

"You got one too?" Yamano asked her.

Roat had a puzzled look on his face, "Who's this Kalen guy?" he asked. Roat didn't get an e-mail from Kalen because he didn't get a gift from Celestia. He had no idea what they were talking about.

"Er . . . he's a system admin. He was in charge of the event that we won the rings from," Yamano lied, "So where are we gonna go to?"

"We're going to **Δ Hidden Oblivious Widow**!" Roat shouted.

"But that's where that girl went into a coma at!" Nabuko said to Roat. She knew that she and Akira would have to go and check it out but she didn't want anything to happen to Roat. "Are you crazy? We can't go there. It could be dangerous!"

"I said the same thing about that other area yesterday," Roat said shrugging, "Nothing happened to you guys did it? What should make this place any different?"

Yamano sighed and huddled up with Nabuko. "I think we should let him come," he whispered to her.

"What?" she asked, "But what about the Data Bug? He's still just a normal player! What if something happens?"

"I know, I know," Yamano said then sighed, "But you said that in your vision you saw us fighting a Data Bug with another person. Besides, we were normal players yesterday and we were struck dead. Look, after all that happened we were still fine." Nabuko sighed. She knew that she wouldn't be able to win this argument. She kind of felt that Roat might be the next chosen person anyway.

"Hey guys," Roat said tapping Yamano on the shoulder, "What are you talking about?"

"Nothing," he said walking in the direction of the Chaos Gate, "Come on let's get going. It's supposed to be a level three area and a water element."

Nabuko and Roat followed him, "It's about time," Roat said.

"**Hidden Oblivious Widow**!" they shouted and then jumped into the Chaos Gate.

"Their other friend is back now. Good, I was hoping they'd bring someone else to play with."

* * *

The gold rings floated to the ground. They were in an area covered in snow. As far as the eye could see there was no life except for a few Cordyceps. They couldn't see any Magic Portals close by but the map showed that the dungeon was nearby. Nabuko walked over to the Cordyceps and put them in her pack. "I have to make my Grunty grow big and strong!" she said in a cheerful tone of voice that lifted everyone's spirits. There didn't seem to be much wrong with this area so they headed for the dungeon. On the way there they ran into about two magic portals. Only a couple of Deadly Moths came out of them. They were really easy to beat and were nothing compared to the Data Bug versions. 

They walked into the dungeon. Roat pulled a Fairy Orb out of his pack and threw it to the ground. "Ok," he said looking at the map, "There are three floors here." They continued down into the dungeon and fought through a few more magic portals. "So, what are those rings supposed to do?" Roat asked as they got farther down in the dungeon, "I mean why would you get them in an event if they didn't have some kind of special effect?"

Nabuko and Yamano stood still for a moment. They didn't have anything they could think of telling him. "Well, actually," Yamano said hesitantly, "I don't think they have any special effect. Maybe they're just for decoration. After all, haven't some of the other administrators done events like that?"

"Only Balmung," Roat responded, "He's kind of weird, but cool. Most of the girl players in 'The World' go crazy for him. There are rumors saying that he used to be with the .hackers!"

"The .hackers?" Yamano asked, "Who are they?"

"You've never heard of the .hackers?" Roat asked. Nabuko looked at Yamano strangely, "They're legends in 'The World!' Supposedly, they solved the final mystery of 'The World.' After that no one was allowed to use their avatars. Until one day two kids won a contest and they were able to use the avatars of the first two members of the .hackers. A Twin Blade named Kite and a Heavy Blade named Blackrose. Not much is known about what happened to the .hackers though. Balmung became a system admin. Some people say that Kite and many of the others still play 'The World', but not many people see them."

"The first member was a Twin Blade?" Yamano asked.

Nabuko knew this but she never thought anything of it, "Do you know what he looked like Roat?"

Roat put his hand to his chin in thought, "Well I never saw him myself but I think he wore red clothes with yellow symbols on it. He also had two red triangles on his cheeks and wore a red hat. His hair was kind of a blue-green color."

"Nabuko do you think that could have been him?" Yamano whispered to her.

"It might have been," she answered. The boy they saw in the memory fragment wore grey clothes, but other then that the description fit him perfectly.

They continued down into the third floor and found the Gott Statue room. There was a Yellow Candy, and two Silver Scarabs. "See, I told you there was nothing wrong with this area," Roat said turning to the two of them, "You guys were just overreacting!"

A confused look came over Yamano's face. "Yeah, I guess it's ok." There was something wrong. According to the boards this place was infected, but nothing was strange about it since they got there. "I just don't get it," he muttered under his breath. They walked out of the room into a Y shaped corridor. Suddenly, orange blotches appeared on the wall and data bits began to float around in the area.

"What the hell is this?" Roat asked. His eyes grew wide as he looked around the area, "This is just like how the other place was." His hands fell limp at his side and all of a sudden a jolt of static went through the area.

Suddenly an image appeared in the middle of the corridor. It was an image of two girl players. One of them was a Heavy Blade. She wore green body armor that went from her shoulders down to her knees. She had black hair that was in a ponytail. The other girl had on a long blue skirt and a shirt that covered up right until the point it reached her navel. She had blonde hair and a set of two small angel wings on her back. At first she held an axe but then it suddenly changed into a set of Twin Blade weapons. "What the heck?" Nabuko asked herself. She had never seen someone's class change. The two girls looked like they were on the bridge in Mac Anu.

The two girls were leaning on the side rail of the bridge and were talking. "I guess you had an adventure without me," the Heavy Blade said looking directly at the Twin Blade and smiling, "Ryo-oki . . . I've been stuck here for a week . . . "

The Twin Blade who was apparently named Ryo-oki turned to the Heavy Blade. "I know . . . " she responded solemnly.

"Is everyone giving you a hard time at school?" the Heavy Blade asked Ryo-oki with care. The two of them must have known each other in real life.

"Yeah . . . " Ryo-oki said, "They are . . . "

The Heavy Blade looked down directly off of the side of the bridge to where the water would have been, "That's horrible," she said as the two of them slowly faded away.

"What was that?" Roat asked, "How can someone get stuck in 'The World?'"

A flat, round object, just like the one they saw yesterday floated to the ground. Yamano and Nabuko ran over to pick it up. When they got it a message appeared which read, "You now have: M:RB"

Roat just stood where he was in shock, "That's not supposed to happen in 'The World,'" he said just staring in the direction of where the memory fragment had just been played. "That couldn't have been an event, that was just too weird," he said turning his view to Yamano and Nabuko, "You guys lied to me didn't you. Something did happen yesterday. Tell me what happened."

Yamano looked ahead. The room on the other side of the corridor now had violet fog flowing from the doorway. He sighed and turned back to Roat, "Well," he said shaking his head, "It seems you're about to find out." He began to run toward the door and Nabuko followed close behind him. Yamano looked back, Roat was still standing in the same place, "Well are you coming or what?" Roat nodded and the three of them went through the door together, all at the exact same time.

"So you finally made it here huh?" a voice from out of nowhere called out, "Honestly I thought you weren't going to come at all, but now that you all are here I can start to have some real fun." A shadow rift opened up and a Heavy Axeman stepped out. He was a slender figure and had light body armor on. It seemed more like the outfit of a Twin Blade. He had a blue scarf on and a gray cape. He wore a light green cap and the rest of his outfit was the same color as well. He held a large blue axe in one of his arms and supported it over his shoulder. "Welcome, my name is Atemis and I will be your slayer tonight."

"Yamano, this is what my vision was, I can see it clearly," Nabuko said turning her head towards him, "So that must mean that you're with Haruko!"

"Well, in a sense yes. Actually we're mortal enemies but we've been brought together for a similar cause," Atemis said with a smirk on his face, "Did you like my little trick? I made that girl post that thing on the boards about her friend going into a coma. I knew that would get you two to come here but I didn't know you'd bring a friend. That's all right though, more sacrificial blood to spill in the name of the Twilight Dragon."

"Twilight Dragon?" Roat asked, "What's that?"

"Don't worry, you don't need to know," Atemis said holding out one of his hands, "After all, all three of you are about to die right here. Now my Data Bug, in the name of the Twilight Dragon I command you to arise!" A green and black circle appeared on the ground, just as it had when Haruko summoned a Data Bug. This time it appeared in the form of a crab.

"It's a Snip Snap," Nabuko said looking directly at it. The only one of them who seemed afraid was Roat. That was probably due to the fact that he hadn't seen a Data Bug before. It looked horrible to him. It was a monster corrupted beyond belief with green specks attached to it like some kind of fungus.

"That thing is a monstrosity," Roat said looking at it, "And its Hit Points are all strange. I can't read it. Is this some glitch on my computer?"

"No," Yamano said as he began to charge at it, "Roat just keep attacking it. It might not seem to do much but just trust me. Nabuko, you focus on healing the two of us, you have the most healing items. If you can, try to hit it with a couple of Fire element spells."

Both Nabuko and Roat nodded. Roat didn't really feel like he should trust Yamano after he had lied to him so much, but he had a slight feeling that Yamano was trying to look out for what was best for him. At the moment it didn't seem like there was anything else he could possibly do anyway.

Finally, a green orb appeared around the monster and broke. An evil grin went across Atemis's face. "You ready Nabuko?" Akira asked holding out his hand.

Nabuko nodded, "Ready." She put her hand on his.

"Sun and Moon Data Drain!" they shouted. A beam of light surged forward and struck the monster then dissipated.

"What happened?" Nabuko asked, "Why didn't it work?"

"Like I said, you won't be leaving this dungeon anytime soon," Atemis said holding up his axe and slicing a new shadow rift, "Well I would love to stay to see your demise, but I have more important things to take care of. Bye-bye now." He stepped through the shadow rift and it closed behind him.

"Two alone will not be able to destroy this threat," a familiar voice said from behind them. All three of them looked behind them and saw Celestia. "Roat, come forth." Roat walked toward her and asked no questions, even though he had so many. Celestia reached out and touched Roat's wrist. A yellow light appeared around it and when it faded away there was a bracelet there, "I give to you the Bronze Bracelet of Mercury and the Gift of Many Tongues. You have been chosen just as many others, including your two friends who are present. Now go forth and use this new power."

Roat bowed his head slightly, "Thank you," he said as Celestia slowly vanished. He looked the bracelet over for a second. It was made completely of bronze metal. On one side of the bracelet it had the symbol of Mercury on it. On the other side there were three triangles forming a triforce. "I think I know what to do now," Roat said holding out the bracelet, "I can hear a voice telling me what to do."

Yamano and Nabuko held out their hands as well, "Sun, Moon, Mercury, Data Drain!" the shouted, each one of them saying their own planetary force. Three beams shot forward and merged into one. It struck the Data Bug and it reverted to its normal form. After that it was easy to defeat. They all leveled up. Yamano and Roat got to level four and Nabuko got to level five.

"I think," Roat said after it was all done, "I think that my bracelet is talking to me. It's like I can understand what its inner life is saying or something. I can hear voices coming from your rings too. They're telling me what happened to you guys yesterday."

Nabuko and Yamano moved closer to him, "I'm sorry we lied to you," Yamano said solemnly.

"That's alright," Roat said rubbing the back of his head, "I understand."

"So, should we log out now?" Nabuko asked.

"Wait a second," Yamano said, spotting something in the middle of the room. It was just like the thing that Kalem had sent to him, but this one had the letter V engraved on it. "Another one. I wonder what it's for." Nabuko pulled out a Sprite Ocarina and the three of them gated out.

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"Where am I?" 

"Don't worry, you'll be seeing some of your old friends very soon."

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megafan505: Well, that's it for now. I think I'll start working on the next chapter already . . . See ya all later! 


	4. The Hidden Chapel

megafan505: Hello! I am back with the next chapter of the fic already. Sorry I took so long to get it up but I started back at school so I was preoccupied. I got two reviews so far! Hooray for two reviews! I would like some more but not much I can do about it. This chapter was originally going to be split up into two parts, but I decided to extend on each part instead. Look forward to the next chapter soon. If I don't have it up by this time next month, then hit me over the head with an ice cream scooper. Also, I would like to promote the online game "The World." You can download it for free at It is very fun! Here's the disclaimer.

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Disclaimer: I don't own .hack/ or any of its characters. The only things I own are characters such as Akira, Natsume, Taro, and the plot line of this fic. Iam, Orizo, Chikoro, Zaiten, and Prisma all belong to Magical Girl Pretty Sammy-Chan.

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.hack/Chosen

By megafan505

Chapter 4: The Hidden Chapel

Yamano appeared before the Chaos Gate. He had been training by himself all day. It was something that was very dangerous but he was barely able to make it. He had been training in level one areas so he didn't get as many experience points as he had wanted, but he really had no choice. He had barely made it through the training that day. He would not have been able to survive going to places that were higher leveled. Luckily he had gotten enough to get up to level five.

He walked over to the board to check and see if there were any new messages. There was one that was entitled, "That Girl"

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Subject: That Girl

Author: Gaelics

I was walking around in a dungeon one day and I saw a bunch of people fighting a really weird monster. It was all covered in some green specks and its Hit Points were weird. I couldn't see any of them clearly except for a Long Arm girl. They all had a ring on, the one she had was red. They all held out their fingers and some light came from their rings. After that the monster became normal. Anyone know anything about that girl, I want to find a ring like that!

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There was one response to the message.

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Subject: Re: That Girl

Author: Ramos

I don't know anything about rings but I saw a Long Arm girl that hadsome kind of weird red gloveor something. She was with about three other people.The others had hand guards just like the one she had, but they were different colors. I followed them to an area. I think it was**Δ Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground**. They might still be there, I'm not sure.

"A group of people that have Data Drain abilities?" Yamano asked himself, "Maybe they have something to do with Celestia."

"Hey Yamano!" two voices shouted to him simultaneously. He turned around to see Nabuko and Roat.

"Hey guys," he said nonchalantly, "You see the board?"

"The post about the guys who can Data Drain?" Roat asked, "Yeah, we saw it."

"You ready to go?" Nabuko asked as she sent Roat and Yamano invites to the party.

Both of them nodded at the same time and quickly accepted the invites. They ran over to the Chaos Gate. "**Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground**!" they all shouted and jumped into the Gate.

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The gold rings swiftly floated to the ground and the three of them appeared. It was an area unlike any they had ever seen before. They stood on a paved stone walkway which seemed to be some type of bridge. In front of them there seemed to be some kind chapel. It had a set of large doors that were almost half of the height of the chapel. It seemed to be around the time of sunset, but a small rainbow was visible in the distance. As they turned back to see what the pathway was attached to they saw nothing. The chapel was floating in mid air.

The three of them slowly walked forward and found that the set of large doors were slightly cracked open, just enough for them to walk through. The chapel was had very high ceilings, so high that it almost felt like it was almost outside. As they looked up at the height of the ceiling they notice several pendulums hanging from it. They were all gold in color and swung back and forth like metronomes. Tick, tock, tick, tock, they swayed like they were marking off each second. The three of them stared at it for so long that they were almost sent into a trance by them.

Yamano shook his head. He had almost lost focus of the reason that they were there. They were looking for that girl and her group of people. They needed to find out what they knew about Celestia, if they knew anything about her at all. Nabuko and Roat shook their heads as well and looked forward. A moderate distance away from them they could see an altar. There were two statues of girls standing on top of the platform. One of the statues was kneeling down, holding in her small hands ten rings. The other one stood upright; in her hands she held a bracelet. The girls looked awfully familiar to Yamano, but he could not figure out what it was about them that made him feel that way. He felt he had seen them somewhere before? Both of the girls looked an awful lot like Celestia but they were different somehow. Then it struck him. In his first encounter with Celestia he had seen those girls standing with her. He opened his mouth to say something, which even he himself didn't quite know what it was going to be. But when the words came out they felt familiar, "Aura," he said and then paused, "Prisma." He didn't know why he had said that but apparently those were the names of the girls. Between the two statues he could see a flower, a red spider lily. That flower had always been one of his favorites, but he could never get any because they were had poison.

Down in front of the altar there was a fence with two girl characters leaning over it. One of them got up and turned around. She was a Long Arm with violet hair. "Oh hello," she said as she saw the group, "I didn't know we had company, my name's Iam."

Yamano looked at her with a sudden bit of surprise. He had not really noticed her there before she said anything. "Oh hello," he said walking closer to her slowly, "I'm Yamano." He bowed slightly and then noticed her hand. On it, she had a red hand guard, just like the one that they were talking about on the boards. "That hand guard," he said starring at it, "Did you get it from a girl named Celestia?"

A confused look came over Iam's face, "Celestia?" she asked him, "I'm sorry, but I don't know who that is? I got this from… well…" A hesitant look came over her face, as if there was something that she wanted to say, but didn't know if she should or not. "I got this from a girl named Prisma." She turned and pointed to one of the statues, "That's her."

The other girl character walked over to them. She was a Wavemaster and she had a yellow hand guard on. Her hair was blonde and all of her clothes were yellow as well. She had on a long skirt with another, shorter one on under it. She held a staff shaped like a cross, which was a pretty basic Wavemaster weapon. "Hi, I'm Chikoro," she said grinning. She glanced at the hands of Yamano and Nabuko, and saw the rings they had on. "You guys have rings too?"

"No we don't just have rings," Roat said walking forward and holding out his hand, "We also have a bracelet. What do you mean 'too' anyway? Last time I checked, those weird things on your hands weren't called rings. Rings are something you wear on your fingers aren't they?" Chikoro began to glare at Roat and he stuck out his tongue in response.

"Stop taunting Chikoro-sama!" a voice shouted. From behind a pillar a Heavy Blade walked out, "Do not worry Chikoro-sama! I, Zaiten, the Brilliant and Bold shall protect you from this vile fiend!" He wasn't like normal Heavy Blades though. This one had the Samurai sub-class, meaning that he used a katana as a weapon instead of the large swords that most Heavy Blades carried around. His katana had a silver and green handle. The rest of it couldn't be seen as it was in the sheath. The Heavy Blade himself was relatively tall and had long hair as well. It was in a ponytail that started from the back of his head and went down about half way down his back. His eyes were a deep hazel brown, which matched the color of his hair and his clothes were brown and green.

Chikoro crossly and quickly turned to Zaiten. "I don't need your help!" she shouted, emphasizing the word 'your.' She turned back to Roat and continued to glare at him. "To bad PKers are hated so much," she said, lifting up her staff, "Or I would have just knocked you off on the spot." She closed her eyes and shrugged, "Oh well."

Akira turned and looked at Zaiten with a strange look on his face. "How many of you guys are there?" he asked, noticing that Zaiten had a hand guard as well.

"Just one more," a voice came from nowhere. From out behind a pillar a Blademaster walked out, "Well, there are about six more of us, but I'm the last one here." He had on a blue hand guard which looked just like the others'. He was slightly taller than Iam was and wore clothes that were all blue with the exception of his black shoes. His hair was spiky and white. He also wore a headband and a vest with sleeves that went down to his wrists. "Hey there," he said lifting up his hand in greeting.

"Orizo-sama!" Chikoro shouted, "You'll protect me from this brute right? After all, you are my boyfriend." She ran over to the Blademaster, apparently named Orizo, and looked up to him. A strange look came over Roat's face. He almost looked sad for a moment.

"How many times do I have to tell you this!" Orizo shouted, "I am not your boyfriend!" He began to brace his teeth as he looked at her. The look on Roat's face faded into a slight smile. Iam stood behind Chikoro, glaring at her. Akira turned and saw Roat smiling.

In the real world Akira typed in /whisper, which was the command for talking to one certain person and then he had Yamano turn to Nabuko. "I think that Roat might like Chikoro," he said snickering. A look of surprise came over Nabuko's face and she began to laugh a bit as well. They turned to see Roat glaring at the two of them.

"I'M STANDING RIGHT HERE YOU KNOW!" he shouted, "I CAN HEAR EVERY WORD YOU'RE SAYING!" Yamano's eyes opened wide.

"You heard me say that?" he said, switching back to normal speak mode by typing in /talk. "But I had it on whisper mode," he said, scrunching his face slightly, "Only Nabuko should have heard me."

"That's because this is a holy place," a voice came from behind them. They turned around to see a girl character who was a Wavemaster. Her clothes were merely a loosely fitting shirt and a skirt which went above her knees. Around her neck she wore a black buckle and she wore a white witch's hat. Her hair was blonde and the rest of here clothes were white. "You aren't allowed to hide anything before the face of God," she continued smiling, "Or at least that's what one of my friends told me." She walked up to the group and bowed slightly, "Hi! I'm Hokuto!"

Everyone except for Chikoro and Roat bowed back. The four who had the hand guards on put their hands behind their backs, apparently so that Hokuto wouldn't see their special items. Yamano was the first one to move forward. "Nice to meet you Hokuto," he said smiling, "I'm Yamano." The rest of them slowly came forward and introduced themselves as well, except for Roat and Chikoro who continued arguing.

"Wow, it's really been a while since I came here," Hokuto said as she looked around. She slowly walked forward, looking toward the ceiling. When she came up to the altar of the chapel she stopped at the fence. She looked at the two statues. "Hey, there's a new statue here," she said turning around, "Do you guys know when this came in?" Orizo and Iam looked toward each other strangely, as if they knew something but didn't want to say anything about it. Hokuto shrugged and turned back to the altar. She looked at the flower which was between the two statues and smiled. "Hello Lycoris," she said, her voice seemingly fading off into the distance.

"Lycoris?" Roat asked, "You're talking to a flower?" He turned to Yamano and Nabuko and put his hand to his mouth. "I think that there is something weird with this girl," he continued. If Hokuto had been paying attention to him she would have heard him, but she seemed to be in an almost trance-like state.

Yamano walked forward and put his hand on Hokuto's shoulder. "Are you okay?" he asked. She just stood there staring at the flower.

Then a strange sound came out of nowhere. At first no one could tell what it was, but slowly it got louder. Soon it came so loud that everyone in the chapel could clearly hear it. "It sounds like a girl," Iam said, looking towards the ceiling, "It sounds like she's laughing." Yamano's hand slowly came off of Hokuto's shoulder and fell to his side as he saw what was happening. The flower that was between the two statues began to glow a faint orange. Then it slowly began to rise in mid air and the light from it continued to grow stronger. Hokuto's mouth slowly curved into a smile.

The light around the flower grew so strong that for a moment nobody could see anything for a moment. A few seconds later the light faded. They all looked up at the altar where the flower was. The flower was no longer there. Instead there was a girl dressed in red. She looked just like the statues which were up on the altar but she seemed younger. She had silver hair with a few small, red streaks through them. She had no shoes on and she was floating in midair. Yamano didn't know why, but she seemed familiar to him. Then it came to him, she was one of the people that were with Celestia. Her name was on the tip of his tongue but he couldn't quite say it. It was almost as if something were forbidding him from knowing it.

The girl looked in the direction of Hokuto and smiled. Hokuto just stood there for a moment. Yamano and the others could hear sniffing. Apparently in the real world, the person who played her was crying. Nobody could see her crying of course, because she hadn't typed in the control for her character to start crying. "Lyco…" she said looking up to the girl. Apparently Hokuto knew this girl somehow.

The girl just floated there for a moment smiling. She then looked forward and began to float towards the others. She landed on the ground and turned to Yamano. She waved her hand, signaling him and Hokuto to come over. They both nodded and walked over. Hokuto opened her mouth to say something but the girl put her finger to her lips, to tell her to remain silent. The girl began to hover a bit higher and she held out her hands. A bright white light began to glow from her and soon it surrounded all of them. They couldn't see the chapel anymore, just each other. Nabuko looked around, "This is just like my vision," she said, turning to Yamano, "I had a dream just like this. I couldn't really see who it was that was there, but I saw our outlines."

The girl held out her hands again and this opened her mouth to say something. "Hello to you who guard 'The World' and all within it," she said smiling still, 'I have come to bring you great tidings of joy. For this message I deliver to you, that you are not alone in your quests. You have already had those that were with you, those who you know in another world." She began to turn around, looking at everyone in the group. "But now," she continued, "You are bound to each other by the very will of 'The World' itself. The stars have decided your fate long ago. That fate is now being shown before each of you. Your purpose is being fulfilled."

The girl's face, which was before filled with joy, now had a bit more serious and solemn tone to it. Her voice also began to grow softer. "But beware, for you also have many enemies to come across," she said.

Zaiten was the first on to notice something happening. He held out his hand and caught what looked to be a red flower petal. "Look yonder," he said pointing upward. All of them except for the girl looked upward and saw many red flower petals falling from the sky. They also saw the four pendulums that were in the chapel, swinging back and forth. Those pendulums were the only things that remained there from the chapel.

"Your destinies have been intertwined," the girl continued, "The stars which hold each of your destinies are crossing each other's paths." As she said this the white background began to turn a slight blue. It was a light and pale tone, but blue none the less. "My time with you now is almost over," she said as she began to fade away, "But do not fear, for we shall meet again one day. The guardians of 'The World' have decided so long ago. My sisters shall minister to your needs as well." One final smile came across her face.

In the blue background, the image of a man appeared. He had very long hair and was sitting upside down in some kind of throne. He looked as if he had been broken apart by something, like a virus or a glitch in the game. He had a kind look on his face despite his strange appearance. "Come, my daughter," he said to the girl, "The first one that I gave birth to. Come and be with me." His figure multiplied and was able to be seen in all directions. He began to smile as well. Then, along with the girl, he slowly began to fade away.

"No, Lyco!" Hokuto shouted as she fell to her knees, "Don't go! I want you to stay here with me! I know where Al is, we can be together again!" Apparently this girl meant a lot to Hokuto. She tried to reach out to the girl, as if she was going to grab her and make her stay. The girl simply looked down at Hokuto, smiled, and waved. Then she and the broken man disappeared from sight. A large, clear crystal appeared above them all where the girl was.

Yamano's ring began to glow and he knew what it meant. "Guys, I think we have to Data Drain that thing," he said pointing toward the crystal. "I know it sounds strange, but I know this," he explained to the Iam and her group, "Just trust me."

Roat walked over next to Yamano and put his hand close to his. "I can hear it," he said looking directly at the crystal, "It's telling me to do that as well." His bracelet and Nabuko's ring began to glow as well. Nabuko nodded and walked up to Yamano's other side.

Iam and Chikoro walked up close to them as well and held out their hands. Zaiten soon followed after them. The three of them looked over to Orizo, who was still standing in the same spot. "Ah, what the hell?" he asked, shrugging, "I've been through stranger things in 'The World' before." He walked up next to them as well.

Yamano turned and looked at them all. They all had their arms extended in the direction of the crystal. They nodded in response and shouted the words. "Prisma's Data Drain!" shouted Iam and her group. At the same time Yamano, Nabuko, and Roat shouted, "Celestia's Data Drain!"

They all looked at the crystal. It began to have a few cracks in it but it wasn't enough power. Yamano turned his head to where Hokuto was kneeling down. She still had her hand held out as if she could reach into some hole and make the girl suddenly reappear. "Come on Hokuto, we need your power too," Yamano said to her, "She said that she would see us again some day. You may not have been given gifts like we have but everyone has power deep within them." Hokuto's arms fell limp to her sides and then she slowly got up. Her mouth curved back into a smile and she nodded.

Hokuto walked forward and held her hands close to her heart. She opened her mouth, as if to say something, but instead of words a song came out. There were no words to it, just a song. A light began to appear around her and she began to float upwards. The cracks in the crystal grew even bigger now, and then finally, it shattered. It broke into eight large shards, and each one flew towards a different person. It entered their bodies without harming them at all, it just went through them. The background around them all faded away and they were back in the chapel. They looked around strangely. Everything seemed to have happened so quickly and now they were back here.

"We did it," Yamano said grinning and turning to everyone. He wasn't exactly sure what it is what they did but he had a feeling that it had something to do with what the girl said, "All of our destinies are now intertwined. Since that is true then we'll all need each other's member addresses." He sent each of them an email with his member address attached to it. They all nodded and did the same with each other.

Hokuto walked up to the center of all of them. "Thank you," she said, looking around at the group, "Without you, I don't think I would have been able to see her again. By the way, her name is Lycoris. If you ever see her again, please tell her that I said hi." Everyone around her nodded in agreement. "Well, I have to get going," she said as she began to run to the exit of the chapel, "Nice meeting you all!" She ran out of the doors and gated out.

The rest of them stood there for a moment. "Yeah, I have to get going too," said Yamano. He bowed to Iam and her group and all of them but Chikoro bowed back. She was busy, still glaring at Roat. Nabuko bowed to them as well but Roat continued to stick out his tongue at Chikoro. They all walked out of the chapel together and then gated out.

A dark figure appeared floating in the chapel. "So, they have been bonded together huh?" he asked crossing his arms. He had shaggy black hair and his character seemed to be pretty young. He wore a visor over his eyes and was dressed in all black, including his shoes and gloves. It was the man who had sent an e-mail to Akira and Natsume. It was Kalen. He turned around to where the statues were on the altar. The others hadn't noticed, but there were four statues there now. Two of them were the same, but now there was a statue of Celestia and another one of Lycoris as well. His mouth slowly curved into a smile and then he slowly faded away.

* * *

The next day Yamano logged on and made his way over to the BBS Station in Mac Anu. There were several new messages there but only one really attracted his eyes. It was by someone named W.B. Yates and it was titled Hope of the Red One. It was a web poem that someone had posted.

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Subject: Hope of the Red One

Author: W.B. Yates

_The witch of a pure heart_

_The knights of guardians_

_Together they unite in the Holy Ground_

_The red guardian, innocent in all ways_

_She comes to the with a prophecy_

_That they shall all be together_

_The father of creation comes for her_

_Together they depart for their own world_

_To be seen again one day_

_The crystal of bonding comes before all_

_The power of the Prism and the Celestial forces unite_

_Together with the pure song they shatter it_

_The stars which hold the destinies of all_

_Now the knights' stars cross each others path_

_Together they shall conquer all_

_From the Holy Ground they depart_

_To meet again, in a distant land someday_

_Together with the guardians and the one who wears the stars as eyes_

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"How?" Yamano asked himself, "How could they know this?" The only ones who were there that day were his group, Iam's group, and Hokuto. How could anyone else have possibly known about what happened? The only way that it could happen was if one of them had another account. The message had been posted a few minutes ago so he figured that if someone he knew posted it, they wouldn't be on their other account. He pulled up his friend list. On it, he saw everyone he knew was online except for Hokuto. "The witch of a pure heart," Yamano muttered under his breath.

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mega: Well, that's it for the fourth chapter. I know, not much moving along as far as the plot goes, but I wanted to put characters from 'Log On!' in more than just a cameo. Well, I'll try to get up the next chapter as soon as possible. See you later! 


	5. The Forlorn Player Killer

megafan505: Hello everyone! Here is the next chapter of .hack/Chosen! I would have had it up earlier but I didn't start on it right away. I don't really have much to say so I might as well get to the disclaimer already!

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Disclaimer: I do not own anything about .hack/ in anyway. The only thing that I actually do own is the storyline of this fic and a certain amount of characters in it. Well, on with the fic! Enjoy!

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.hack/ Chosen

By megafan505

Chapter 5: The Forlorn Player Killer

"So did you have any visions?" Akira asked Natsume as he turned his head towards her. They were walking to school together that morning. Taro wasn't with them. They made it a habit to meet him at school since he always seemed to get there before they did. Besides that, he would end up cracking jokes saying how cute the two of them looked together.

Natsume turned her head towards Akira as well and nodded. "There was this boy," she said turning her head forward again, "He was very quiet, even after we tried to talk to him." She shrugged as they turned the corner. "I'm not sure what he has to do with Celestia or 'The World'," she continued, "But so far I've only had visions about those things so he must be important somehow."

Akira turned forward as the entered the school yard. "Well maybe," he started in mid-thought, "Maybe he could be the next chosen one." He saw Taro, who was standing in the doorway and beginning to grin and wave at the two as they kept walking forward. "Let's tell Taro at lunch," Akira continued. He pulled his hand out of his pocket and began to look at his ring. This was still a little bit new to him; it all felt strange. Then a new feeling came over him. He stopped there for a moment.

Natsume began to walk past him, but then she realized that Akira had stopped walking. "What's wrong Akira?" she asked as she turned back around and walked over to him.

Taro ran up to them and put his arms over their shoulders. "Morning you two love birds!" he shouted at the top of his lungs and grinned. He paused for a moment and looked at Akira who had a blank look on his face. "What's up?" he asked turning his head back and forth.

"He isn't one of us," Akira said as the blank look slowly faded away from his face, "But he is important." He put his hand on his face and shook his head. He looked up toward the sky. "That's strange," he said, "Look." Taro and Natsume looked upward. There, in the sky, a crescent moon shape could be seen.

"That's not so strange, I see the moon in the day a lot," Taro said looking back toward Akira. He then remembered what Akira had said before. "Who isn't one of us?" he asked, "Who's important?"

Natsume turned toward Akira, almost as if to ask if in was okay to tell him. He looked toward her as well and nodded in approval. "I had another vision," she said as she turned toward Taro, "There was a boy in it. But if he hasn't been chosen, then how is he important to us?"

Akira shrugged and shook his head at the same time. "Maybe he's part of Iam's group," Taro suggested, "Orizo did say that there were others like them."

"No, if he was then he probably would have been with some of the others, even if it was real life," Natsume pointed out, "Anyway, if their hand guards work the same way as our sings and your bracelet, then they would have them in the real world too."

"Besides," Akira added, "My feeling told me that he wasn't chosen. Iam and the others were chosen by that Prisma girl." He paused for a moment in thought and put his finger to his chin. 'Who is Prisma anyway?' he thought to himself, 'And what does she have to do with us or Celestia.'

Akira opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, the bell rang. "Let's talk about this after school, I just remembered that I have a doctor appointment during lunch today," she said and she began to run off, "See you later!" She waved to them as she made her way into one of the buildings.

Taro and Akira began to walk into the other building to get to class as well. It wasn't really surprising to Akira at all to hear virtually everyone talking about "The World." He thought back to not too long ago, when he couldn't stand those conversations. Now he would have joined in as well, but this time it was just the people that he couldn't stand.

"Alright everyone, settle down," Mr. Kurasume shouted as he hit a ruler up against the chalkboard to get everybody's attention. "We have a new student today," he continued as he began to turn slightly towards the door.

Akira turned his head back slightly and glanced at Taro. 'Another one?' he thought to himself, 'There sure are a lot of new students coming in lately. Oh well, he can't be too bad, could he?' He thought back to when Taro first came and sighed. He better not try to jinx it.

"Please welcome Satoshi Arakawa," said Mr. Kurasume as he waved his hand inward, as if to beckon someone to come in. Almost instantly after he made this gesture, a boy walked in. He wore the normal uniform and had straight black hair with several bangs hanging down in the front. He wore round glasses and his eyes were yellow with a tad bit of a reddish tint to them. Both of his hands were in his pockets and he had an expression on his face as if he just wanted to be left alone. "Now Arakawa-san, please take a seat next to…" Mr. Kurasume began moving his finger over the class, looking for a seat, "You may sit next to Hayabusa-san."

Akira began to clench his fist tightly and slunk down in his seat. He had chosen this seat specifically because it was where nobody was sitting directly next to him. On top of that it was near the corner. Now he had two people sitting near him. He sighed and shook his head as Satoshi began to walk to the seat next to him. Why wouldn't Mr. Kurasume allow new students chose seats by themselves? Akira looked over at Satoshi, who was now sitting down with his hands folded on his desk. On the back of his hand, Akira could see the image of a red and yellow eye.

* * *

"That's strange," Taro said as he looked directly at Akira. It was now lunch time and Akira had told him what he saw on Satoshi's hand. Taro was eating a hamburger. Akira didn't see what Taro liked about it; to him they were just a piece of meat and bread, an American lunch. He much preferred the classic shrimp tempura and rice bento, but it was up to Taro what he ate for his lunch. "Maybe it was a birth mark, or a tattoo."

Akira shook his head, "It looked pretty natural to me, almost as if it was part of his skin," he said as he broke apart his chopsticks and picked up a bit of rice. "Besides," he continued, "I got another feeling at the moment I saw it, there's some sort of importance to our mission."

"What does it have to do with our mission?" he asked, not even really sure what their mission was, "I doubt that Celestia will want the guy's hand or something." He closed his eyes and began to take a bite of his hamburger again. "Hey, maybe he's the guy in Natsume's vision."

"I don't really see how we're going to figure that one out," Akira said as he put his chin on the back of his hand, "I can't control the Gift of the Mind completely yet and it's not like we can just go up to him and ask him." He hated to admit that he couldn't control his power, but it was true.

"You may not have control over your power, but I do," Taro said as he began to grin slightly, "I've been practicing as much as I possibly could. I can read people's mind with the Gift of Many Tongues." Akira's eyes grew wider nearing disbelief. Satoshi walked past their table. "Watch this," Taro said as he took out his hand with the bracelet on it. He opened it and aimed it toward the direction of Satoshi. The bracelet began to glow and Satoshi smirked.

Akira's eyes grew wide in interest and he looked in the direction of Satoshi as well. Then all of a sudden, the bracelet stopped glowing. Akira looked over at Taro who was now falling over. "Taro!" Akira shouted as he ran over to the other side of the table. He grabbed Taro's shoulders and began to shake him. His eyes slowly opened, "What happened?"

"I don't know," Taro said, putting his hand to forehead. He sat back up and began to shake his head a bit. "I was getting a faint voice for a moment, but then there was this strange sound. I don't know how to describe it, but after that everything went dark."

Akira opened his mouth to say something, but again the bell rang. It seemed that it was trying to keep him from saying anything at all today. He shook his head and stood up. "Come on, we better get to class," he said as he grabbed his bento. 'What could that have been,' he thought to himself.

* * *

"So what was it that you saw exactly?" Nabuko asked as the three of them sat in an alleyway in Mac Anu. They were in "The World," and talking about the day. After school Akira had to go and pick up his Chihiro and Sota from their school and take them home. His mother and father had to go downtown to pick up a crate of curry mix to put in the store. Akira decided that the best time to talk about something at that point would be from inside "The World."

Yamano stood up and began to lean up against the wall. "It was like this figure of an eye," he explained, "Did the guy in your vision have something on his hand?" If he did, then this would definitely be the boy that she had envisioned. After that, they would just have to figure out why he was important.

"Now that you mention it…" Nabuko began as she put her finger to her chin, "Yeah, I think he did have a mark like that. But I'm not sure where we were with him. It could have been in the real world, or here in 'The World'."

Roat stood up now and he began to stretch his arms. "Well there's not much we could actually do just by sitting here, now is there?" he asked as he began to yawn, "Were there any new things on the board? Those hacker guys might be starting to get active again."

Yamano shook his head in response. "There was one thing," he said as he thought back to when he first logged on today, "But it was just something about a guy looking for help on raising a Grunty."

"Well we might as well go out somewhere and train, don't you think?" Roat asked as he turned his head towards Nabuko, "Those hackers could attack at anytime, and right now we still have pretty low levels." It was true, although they had been training as much as they possibly could they didn't get too far. Yamano was at level six while both Roat and Nabuko were level seven. He was the first one that was chosen, but he was behind both of his teammates.

Nabuko stood up and brushed herself off. "Well, you guys know where we should go?" she asked as she began to send invites to join a party to Yamano and Roat. The three of them had just logged in a little while ago so they hadn't formed the party yet.

"There is this one place that we could go to," Roat said as he began to walk out of the alley, "It's a level six area, lightning element. I think that it's called **Δ Forlorn Missing River Spirit**."

"You know what we need to get?" Nabuko said as she and Yamano began to follow Roat to the Chaos Gate, "We need a hideout or something! But it probably costs a lot to get one though, huh?"

Roat turned his head back towards the two of them and began to walk backwards to the Chaos Gate. "Oh, by the way, I ran into Orizo the other day," he said as the walked past the Recorder, "He said that they have a hideout of their own! It's called Midnight Ring. And from what I heard, it cost them a lot of GP. We should wait for a while before we get our own."

Yamano turned his head towards Roat in interest. "They have their own hideout?" he asked. He was actually surprised by the fact that Roat ran into Orizo. Sure it was possible, but Orizo was much higher than them in level. He thought that he would spend more time in a higher level server. "Well maybe they'll invite us to come over there one day," he said hopefully.

They reached the Chaos Gate and they all faced directly towards it. "**Forlorn Missing River Spirit**!" they all shouted and thrust their fists upward. The Chaos Gate began to glow and they all jumped in. After they jumped in it began to slow down slightly again and glow less, like how it usually would after someone had just used it.

"Let the hunt begin."

* * *

The three of them appeared in the area and the golden rings around them floated to the ground. They all looked around and viewed the area. For a lightning elemental area this

place seemed pretty calm. It was rather cloudy, but other than that nothing much in

weather indicated that this was a lightning elemental. "Hey Roat, what made you choose this area?" Yamano asked, turning to Roat, "There isn't anything special about it is there?"

"No not really," Roat said in response and shrugged, "I heard some guys talking about it the other day. I can't remember what they said about it but I thought it would be cool. Man, was I ever wrong." He was indeed wrong. There wasn't much of anything there. There were no trees or plants. In fact, aside from a few magic portals the only thing in sight was a well. "Well, we might as well get to training," he said as he made his blades come out and rushed towards a magic portal.

When they reached a magic portal and it opened, all that was there was a treasure box. "That's it?" Nabuko asked, a little bit in surprise. This was a level six area. Sure they may have just have gotten there, but they should have seen at least one monster. They went to three more magic portals but they all had the same thing. "Well, maybe there are some monsters in the dungeon or something," Nabuko said as she began to shrug.

"Too bad that you won't make it," a voice from behind her said. Before anyone knew what had happened there was a Twin Blade standing right behind her. He had coarse, read hair and he wore a grey scarf. He had his two weapons held up right to her neck. They were both shaped like discs. Just by their appearance any person who had been playing "The World" for a while would know that those weren't some oridinary Twin Blade weapon. They both were red and had crosses through them. On top of that they were surrounded by a thin layer of flame. The Twin Blade himself wore an outfit that was something like Roat's, except it consisted mostly of grey and red colors. He had a pair of dark blue gloves on and his shirt he had the image of an eye. "Now if you would be so kind, please give me your member address," he said in a somewhat crackled voice. It sounded like he was either really old, really sick, or some kid trying to sound like a really bad villain.

Yamano and Roat pulled out their weapons and braced themselves to attack the person. This was obviously a PKer. But why was he attacking them? "Ah, ah, ah," he said shaking his head and then nodding towards Nabuko, "You wouldn't want this girl to get hurt now would you?" The two of them loosened up a bit. It seemed like he had the advantage here. "Now then, as I was saying, your member… Ouch!" he shouted and picked up his foot. While he hadn't been watching Nabuko she had been clenching her fist. Finally she couldn't take it anymore and stepped on his foot as hard as she could. The flames on the two discs went out and the Twin Blade held them both in one hand. "Ouch, ouch, ouch!" he shouted, the voice sounding quite a bit younger now, "That hurt!" He regained his composure and held the discs in both his hands again. "You caught me off guard, but that won't happen again," he said in his sickly tone of voice again.

"Hey Bozo," Roat said pointing over to Nabuko, who was now standing between him and Yamano, "In case you haven't noticed, your bartering chip isn't exactly in your possession anymore." Nabuko slightly glared at Roat, not enjoying being talked about as an item of some sort. The Twin Blade stood there for a moment then slowly began to walk away. Then he began to run off quickly. "Tarot of the Hanged Man!" Roat shouted as he pulled out a scroll. Apparently, the Twin Blade didn't run off fast enough because he was still in range of the scroll. He was now stuck in that one spot until the scroll wore off.

The three of them walked up to the Twin Blade, who was standing in a position that looked as if he had been frozen in the middle of a step. "So who are you exactly?" Nabuko asked as she crossed her arms. The scroll seemed to slightly ware off, because he was able to move his head. He turned to her and gave her a cold stare.

"Why should I tell you?" he said in a voice which once again made him sound younger. "Don't you know that it's against the rules to ask for a player's name?"

"Not your real name you idiot," Roat said moving up to the Twin Blade. He started to poke him, as if to try and taunt him with the fact that he couldn't move. Roat sighed, "We aren't getting anywhere with this," he said and held out the arm with the bracelet on it, "I'll just read this guys mind." For a little while it began to glow, but then it stopped just as it had during lunch. Roat suddenly just stood there for a moment. His mouth opened slightly.

Yamano realized what was going on, so he ran up to Roat and began to shake him, just as he had during lunch. "Roat! Snap out of it!" he shouted as he shook him. Nabuko stood there behind him, not quite sure what to do.

Soon, Roat came back to normal. "What happened?" he asked, "That sound, I heard it again. It was like a buzzing, but higher pitched. It was like, a drop of water falling into a puddle. No, it was stranger than that." He put his hands to his head and began to shake it again. "I think I may have blacked out," he said looking up again, "In the real world, I mean."

Yamano turned to the Twin Blade again. "Well, you might not tell us your username, but I know your real name," he said crossing his arms. "Exactly who, or what are you?" he continued, "Satoshi Arakawa."

* * *

The four of them were now sitting down in a circle with their legs crossed. The character that Satoshi was playing seemed to have surrendered, because he wasn't moving at all. He hung his head in shame and just sat there. The effects of the scroll had already worn off so Roat held another one close by, just in case. "Yes, I am indeed Satoshi Arakawa, but here I'm known as Kesoth" he said sighing, "And I'm sorry for trying to PK you."

Nabuko sat glaring at him. There were two types of people that she hated in "The World." Those two were those who were hackers, and those who were PKers. "Why were you trying to PK us in the first place?" she asked him in an untrusting tone of voice.

"I'm sorry, it's just that," he tried to explain, "That's pretty much what I play the game for." The others began to stare at him in disbelief. Nabuko's and Roat's mouths gaped open slightly.

"That's terrible!" Roat said, holding one fist up in the air, "There's so much more to this game then just PKing. Why not try to make some friends?" He was trying to figure out what it was that made him this way.

"Please, let me explain. I have been playing this game for about five years now," Kesoth said, now looking towards them. This was the first time he actually looked at them in the eyes. "It was about a week after I had started playing," he continued explaining, "I logged on and was in Mac Anu. I began to walk around for a little while, but then there was this strange sound. All of the settings around me began to blur. Even the players began to seem strange. Their voices were kind of messed up."

The other three suddenly became very interested in his story and began to move slightly in closer. "Then the sound grew louder," he continued, "It was like a pin being dropped on the ground or something, it was strange. Then everything around me disappeared and there was this red wand that appeared before me. After that, some weird monster appeared and he charged towards me. I braced myself, but when I opened my eyes, it was gone. In my hands I had these." He now held up the two discs which he had as weapons. "I heard some voice calling out to me," he explained, "It was saying something about being a part of me now. My avatar started to change soon after that. My clothes changed color scheme and I got this eyes on me." He now stood up and pointed to where the image of the eye was.

Kesoth put his hand to his head and began to shake it. "Then everything went black," he said, "When I woke up I was in my room. On my hand I had an image of an eye, just like this one." He sighed and looked up at the three again. "I don't know what happened that day," he explained, "But after that, every time I logged onto 'The World,' or even got near a computer, there was this sudden feeling within me. Something was telling me to kill. There had been a Twin Blade, I think his name was Sora, who went around taking the member addresses of people, and if they didn't give it to him, he would PK them. He had gone missing from 'The World,' so I decided to carry out his legacy. For some reason, I don't feel satisfied in this game until I choose a target, track them down, and PK them."

Yamano looked directly at Kesoth now. He opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by a voice that came out of nowhere. "Oh you poor thing," it said, almost as if it were having pity on him, "Don't worry, we'll make it all better." The four of them looked up. The sky was now turning darker than before and things all around them were changing. Large spikes came up from the ground and began to twist in all sorts of directions. The well changed shape, into what looked like a gate. The doors of the gate opened and a girl who was a Fighter stood in the doorway. There was what looked like a shadow rift behind her. It quickly sealed itself shut. "Like my entrance?" the girl asked with one hand on her hip, "Presenting, the amazing hacker, Zoisius!" She was in a yellow, skin-tight, one piece outfit with went down to her knees and had long sleeves. Her hair was long and blue in a braided ponytail and she wore a black headband. On her waist, she had a pair of light green gloves with silver spikes on them, as those were what Fighters used as their weapons. The girl shrugged and jumped up.

When she jumped she seemed to teleport, as one moment she was there and the next she was behind Kesoth. She wrapped her arms over his shoulders and began to rub her face on his hair. He appeared to be taller than she was, but she was floating in midair. "I'm so sorry you dear thing," she said in a sympathetic tone of voice, "Let me make everything all better for you!"

"Who are you?" Roat shouted, standing up quickly. Yamano and Nabuko also stood up after him. They were prepared to fight to save Satoshi, even though he was a Player Killer. Roat and Nabuko wanted to save him because they knew that he was important somehow. Yamano, on the other hand felt a slight bond with him. It was strange, but he felt like he could somehow trust him.

Zoisius looked up, her arms still wrapped around Kesoth. "Well what do you know," she said grinning, "If it isn't the group of little heroes. Talk about a coincidence. Now I can kill two birds with one stone." She looked around at the three of them who were now bracing themselves for battle. "Well, I would love to have a bit of fun with you," she said turning around slightly and holding one hand out, "But the choice isn't really mine. I'll leave a little friend of mine with you." Out of the palm of her hand a green data stream began to flow out and took shape. When the green light around it faded away there was what seemed to be a treasure chest, but it had spider legs on it. There were the green flakes and 0s and 1s flowing from it. This was a Data Bug. "I call it a Jester, it's an improved version of a Mimic," Zoisius said as she moved her hand over to her left side, "Well, hope you have fun! Come along now dear."

Another shadow rift opened up next to her. "Let go of me!" shouted Kesoth, "I don't want to go with you!" He reached for his two discs and lit them on fire. He spun around and hit her with it sending her to the ground.

"Not bad," she said in response, "But not good enough!" She caught herself from the fall and kicked Kesoth's legs, causing him to fall to the ground and drop his discs, which were now stuck in the ground. She grabbed him by the arm and jumped into the shadow rift. "Bye, bye now!"

The shadow rift closed quickly behind them. "No!" shouted Roat, reaching out his open hand.

Yamano put his hand on Roat's shoulder. "We can't stop them now," he said, "But we have to take care of this Data Bug." The three of them got into a fighting position and began to charge at the monster which was charging at them as well. Several times, it hit them, but Nabuko had some Health Drinks handy. They found out why Zoisius had called this creature a Jester. It opened up a few times and a clown head with sharp teeth popped out and bit them. Finally, after a while, a green orb appeared and broke, "Now!"

"Sun!" shouted Nabuko. "Moon!" shouted Yamano. "Mercury!" shouted Roat. They had the hands which held their items out. Yamano's and Nabuko's rings began to glow and so did Roat's bracelet. "Data Drain!" they all shouted together. A beam of light shot forth from each one of their items and merged into one. It hit the Jester head on, which reverted back to a normal Mimic. The three of them rushed at it and easily struck it down.

"We couldn't save him," Nabuko said standing where Kesoth had dropped his discs, "We couldn't stop her from taking him. We're supposed to be guardians and stop evil. A player just got kidnapped and we couldn't do anything to save him." Roat and Yamano walked up to her and Yamano put his hand on her shoulder.

Then, for seemingly no reason whatsoever, Roat's bracelet and the rings began to glow again. "What the…" Roat began to ask, but he was cut off. The two discs began to float upwards and three beams of light shot forward toward it.

For a moment, nobody knew what it was that was going on exactly. The two discs began to merge together and changed shape. They shrunk into the size of something that looked like it could fit in the palm of someone's hand. Then the light faded. There, in midair, was a little fairy-like creature. She had a long night gown on and had blue wings. She had a large smile draped across her face and looked like a young girl. "Fei! Fei!" the little creature shouted out in a high pitched voice, "They have helped! They have helped! They have woken up Fei!" The three of them stood around the little fairy, which was apparently named Fei.

Nabuko had a huge smile at the fact that this creature was so cute. Roat too couldn't help but have his lips curl upwards slightly. Yamano on the other hand cocked an eyebrow and crossed his arms. "What are you?" he asked looking at Fei in a strange tone of voice.

"Fei is Fei!" she shouted flying around in all sorts of swirling patterns. "Fei is very glad to meet you! Fei has been waiting a very long time to see Yamano, Roat, and Nabuko! Fei can't wait to see what they are like as Akira, Taro, and Natsume!"

"How do you know…?" Yamano began to ask but he was cut off. Before he could say anything more, Fei flew upwards and some sort of shiny dust fell down on them. All three of them felt compelled to close their eyes for some reason. The only thing they could here was Fei shouting out her name.

* * *

When Akira opened his eyes he was back in his room. "What happened?" he asked looking around, "Was that all a dream?" He continued to look around the room. He was sitting down in his computer chair. Everything seemed to be as it was before he logged on to "The World." He turned forward and almost jumped back at what he saw. It surprised him so much that his chair fell backwards.

There, on the computer screen, was an image of Fei pressing her face up against what seemed like the inside of the monitor. "Fei! Fei!" she shouted and the computer began to glow. The light from the computer faded and Fei flew out of the computer. "Fei! Fei!" she shouted again, "This is Akira? Fei likes Akira better the way he looks now then how he looks as Yamano!"

If this were in any other situation, Akira would have blushed out of embarrassment. But this was just too strange. "Fei! How did you get on my computer!" he shouted looking up at her, "How did you get into my room!"

"Fei can do that," she explained flying around the room, "Fei is a cyber sprite! Fei can do anything with technological things!" She seemed very happy to be in the real world. "Fei likes your world, even if it is small," she said flying up in front of Akira's face, "Fei wonders where the others are!"

"This is my room, not my world!" Akira shouted at Fei, "If you want to see where the others are, why don't you just go through the computer and find them! I have Natsume's e-mail address! Go and find her!" Apparently Fei didn't know that Akira was angry because she simply grinned and flew off into the computer again. "Good riddance," he said standing back up and picking up his chair. She couldn't be seen on the screen, so she must have been flying around somewhere in the internet.

"Onii-chan," Chihiro put her head through the door.

Akira turned his head towards his little sister who was standing there near the doorway. "Oh, hey kid," he said pushing the chair back under the desk, "What's up?" He walked up to her and opened the door all the way.

"Natsume called for you," she said holding the phone out to him.

"Thanks kiddo," he said giving her a little hug, "Now go along and torment Sota for me." She ran downstairs laughing. "Hey Natsume," he said putting the phone up to his ear, but then he remembered what he had told Fei. "Oh shit!" he cursed under his breath, "Natsume, I am so sorry about Fei being there! That is completely my fault."

"Don't worry about it Akira," she said in a very happy tone, "It's like having a little sister. I'm an only child so this will be fun." Akira could here Fei shouting out her name in the background. "I'll take care of her," she said in the same happy voice, "Say bye Fei!" Akira could here Fei in the background again, but this time she was saying goodbye to him. Natsume hung up the phone.

Akira set down the phone by his computer and went to lie down on his bed. He had a lot to think about. What were those hackers up to? Why did they kidnap Kesoth? Who were the other chosen ones? All of these things went through his mind, but he thought mostly about what happened today. "What are they doing?" he muttered and slowly faded to sleep. The next day, Satoshi wasn't in class.

* * *

"Let go of me! What do you want!"

"Don't worry little one. Think of this as a sort of reunion. All will be seen in due time."

* * *

.hack/Fei's Corner

Fei! Fei! Welcome to the part of the show where Fei takes over! Fei knows a lot about things going on in "The World," so here we go! Today, Fei will be talking about Kesoth's flaming discs. They're called Pyro Wheels, and they're a special type of Twin Blade weapon. Instead of how the normal Twin Blade fights, these can also be used for throwing. The shape that they are in gives it the ability to be thrown with ease. The user can hold the cross in the middle and use it as a handle for when they are fighting normally. That's it for Fei's Corner! Fei hopes to see you again! Bye-bye!

* * *

.hack/Next Time

Natsume Ichiya here! We still don't know what those hackers are up to yet. We have another thing to worry about for now though. We need to try and find more of the chosen ones. Taro! What are you doing? Who's that girl? Well, whoever she is, Fei seems to like her too. Well, here's a little scene from the next chapter of .hack/Chosen!

* * *

"Thank you, come again," the girl at the counter said and handed them their bags. She seemed to be a couple of years older than they were. Natsume smiled at her and followed Akira out the door.

"So, when you get home, log on right away," Akira said turning his head to Natsume, "Hopefully Taro will already be… Ah!" His hopes that Taro would be on were proved to be wrong as Akira had just tripped over him. "Taro! Why are you sitting in the middle of the sidewalk!"

"Isn't she beautiful?" Taro asked as if he was in a daze, "She's so nice and graceful too. She's perfect!" He was looking around the corner towards the store that Akira and Natsume had just come out of.

"Who? You mean that cashier?" Akira asked picking up the bag which was full of the blank CDs that they bought, "She seems nice, I guess."

"Fei! Fei!" Fei shouted as she popped out from the inside of Natsume's shirt pocket, "Fei likes her too! Fei wonders who she is though." She flew out of Natsume's pocket and landed on Taro's shoulder.

"I'll tell you something," Taro said turning his head towards the others, "I want to spend the rest of my life with that girl. I want to spend it with Kat Nakama."

* * *

mega: Wow! That's the longest chapter I ever wrote. Go figure, I was thinking that it would be one of the shorter ones. Oh well, hope you enjoyed Fei's Corner and the Preview. Remember, you can help influence this fic. Give me any ideas that you may have. See you around! 


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